Someone To Run With
by Sarazz Prime
Summary: Michelangelo is always the comic relief, always the one to say some catchy one liner that makes his older brothers chuckle. While that's all good and well, for once he just wants to be taken serious. Full summary inside
1. Chapter 1

**SOMEONE TO RUN WITH**

**Summary:**Michelangelo is always the comic relief, always the one to say some catchy one-liner that makes his older brothers chuckle. While that's all good and well, for once he just wants to be taken serious. So when a human teen with a family lineage that hides a dark ancient secret falls into the lives of the turtles, Michelangelo finds a possible kindred spirit who's just trying to make their own existence recognized.

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**Disclaimer:** I do not own THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES! All recognizable characters are the property of (I believe) Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (correct me if I am wrong). Any and all unrecognizable characters are the sole property of my continuously expanding imaginative universe. Their theft can and may possibly result in punishment through nasty juju via wicked voodoo into the insanity of repeat episodes of Americanized Inu Yasha on Adult Swim! (Yeah, how you like them apples?!)

**Rating:** T

**Warnings:** Mild language and violence, teen angst, and some scary situations. Further warnings will be posted on a chapter to chapter basis when necessary!

**Author Note:** Yet again I have introduced the dreaded OC into the pre-existing universe of a beloved childhood memory of mine. Oh the agony! Well, for maybe some, but not me. This is for my personal enjoyment, my 'playtime' in the TMNT universe, so thusly there will be no set period in the time-line as to when this story may or may not take place. If any at all, it'll borrow some minor references to the 2007 TMNT movie.

ALSO! Some themes for this story have been somewhat gleaned off the anime/manga series NARUTO created by Masashi Kishimoto, and thusly I would like to give him his credit where credit is due, and this will be pointed out in the various chapters they may appear within.

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**Chapter One  
Chaotic Intro**

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"_Good news is, there's a bunch of Foot ninja getting the snot kicked out of them!" _- **Michelangelo,**_**TMNT**_

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A chill wind swept in off the bay waters, washing in over the night scape layout of Manhattan, its bitter kiss promising that winter snow was not far behind within the next few months even though it was already October. While the remaining crowds began to disperse from the streets, pulling their coats tightly about themselves to block out the chill cold, the city still remained ever alive with activity. Taxis ferried passengers through the mind numbing maze of streets and traffic lights, delivery services were returning back to their home base of operations respectfully, the street side stores were beginning their nightly rituals of closing out as the employees having worked eight hour shifts, were ready to go home and call it a day.

While the hubbub of the city continued to thrum with its own endless soundtrack, there were others out and about that were not retreating home for the night and calling it a day. In fact, their day had seemingly just began...sort of.

On the far west end of Manhattan, mixed within the the dark and dank warehouses of the bay harbor, commotion outside of the daily and nightly work spent there, was stirring up a new track to the nightlife. A scuffle had broken out within the alleyway between two massive warehouses used for storing freight containers brought in off tankers and cargo barges. The sounds of feet shuffling across the damp, slimy concrete mixed within time to the dull thuds of exchanged blows. Out from the mouth of the alley facing the dark waters of the ocean, a body clothed in black fatigues shot out from the pitch shadows back first and crumpled to the ground after crashing into a pile of empty cargo crates.

Several more bodies of similar appearance were tossed out of the alleyway in the same manner as the first, each one landing in the same vicinity of the first to go before them. None of them appeared to be getting up any time soon, which was probably a good thing for them as the sounds of the fight seemed to escalate in the alleyway.

"These dudes just don't know when to quit!" He laughed aloud, hands skillfully twisting the pair of nunchaku about in fast spinning arcs that popped several more of the black shrouded bodies in either the face/head region or somewhere in the chest. Each one hit fell backwards, gasping for breath or cradling their faces that now reeked with intense pain as their noses were possibly broken. "Heads up!"

From the other end of the alleyway, several of the black shrouds rushed forward in an opposite direction, their body language shouting intent to physically harm someone. However, their attempt failed as they fell to their knees, arms wrapping about their stomachs as they did so, bodies withering on the unforgiving pavement from a form of pain they had never experienced prior to this. "No kidding." She muttered, a rather unamused tone sailing out through her words. "Coming your way Mikey!"

Normally, a fight was nothing odd in the rough parts such as these at night. Most would merely shrug it off as rival gang fighting or a "meeting" gone bad, passing by in car or by foot without a second thought while somehow making a mental note to call the police whenever the nearest phone became available to them. Most of the time, night security at the harbor would chance upon the fight, go in shouting and send the combatants scattering to the four winds. However, tonight's scuffle was anything but "normal". A well known fact of the city, or anywhere for that matter, was that anyone wearing black normally did so for three reasons – number one starting off the list as the said dress code of goth and the "emo" crowds that many teens were being pulled into thanks to pop culture, number two coming in at the well known dressing secret of many women looking to slim down their figures without going through the hassle of going to a gym and cutting out sweets from their diet, and number three having newly arrived as the professional look of employees working high end jobs.

Now, outside of those three main reasons of sorts, someone walking around dressed head to toe in all black, and especially in the style of "ninja fatigues", was a **huge** oddity in the city of Manhattan. With black masks complete with fiber optic eye filters hiding all chance of identity from view and red bands tied about the brow, it was safe to say that these were neither overweight women or self-absorbed teens being tossed about the alleyway between warehouse twelve and warehouse eleven (or so they were numbered with large fading red paint blocks). Another raise for concern was who it was these guys happened to be fighting, as they too were nothing short of _odd_ in their appearances as well.

After all, it's not everyday you get to watch a human-sized turtle walking about on two legs, let alone fighting with a weapon of Asian origin on a master skill level, and an equally odd dressed human wearing a porcelain animal faced mask tear through a group of guys dressed like ninjas in some dark alley in Manhattan. Things like that aren't a normal occurrence in any city, state, or country for that matter!

More and more of the black shrouded gang seemed to appear from every nook and cranny of the alleyway, gaining a numbers advantage of the two they were trying to bring down. However, the combined teamwork of the oddball pair caused a rather annoying bump in their plans, especially as the more human looking of the two ran towards the walking talking anthropomorphic turtle, stepping high on the last bound to plant their left foot into the cupped and lowered hands of the turtle who then used an amazing amount of force to push up and swing his hands backwards over his head. The animal masked human shot out over the turtle, hands dipping into the two small pouches sitting on the back of either hip and retrieving a kunai knife in their grasp.

Twisting through the air with aerial skill, the animal masked fighter dove long into the black clad men rushing in through the open mouth of the alleyway, arms swinging out in a forward criss-crossing slash as they zipped right down the middle of their line and parted them like the Red Sea. Landing in a kneeling slide, the masked fighter stood up almost immediately and looked back over their shoulder. Eyes of dark grey stared out through the dark slits carved into the mask to form the angular grinning eyes of the mask, and watched as over seven of the shrouded men fell to the ground in a motionless heap.

However, in sacrifice for such a move, the turtle had placed himself out in the wide open for a chance attack that those in black did not hesitate to take. Several of them rushed the turtle, spearing their shoulders into the hard belly shell that protected his front, and continued to run while shoving the giant reptile off his feet and straight through the wooden back wall of warehouse twelve. Their efforts were not wasted, as the blow sent to the turtle sprawling backwards across the warehouse floor amongst the remains of the shattered wall. Regaining his breath and sense of balance rather quickly, the turtle kicked his legs around, spinning himself on the otherwise annoying back shell connected to his body and popped back up to his feet. With several quick flicks of his wrist, the turtle popped the men in black running at him with his nunchaku, sending them reeling and cursing in Japanese.

"Ha! I'm one lean, mean, green machine! Whatcha!" His battle cry of sorts, was nothing short of comical, but as he tossed an expert punch and several kicks at the swarming mass pouring in through the hole his body had created, the turtle only laughed as he dished out further blows knowing that his help was just on the other side of that broken wall.

A violent rumble shook the ground quickly, many of the men in black swaying and stumbling over themselves in response as they had not expected an earthquake. Fortunately enough for the city, the rumble in the ground was no earthquake, but unfortunately for anyone stuck outside with the animal masked fighter, their bodies were sent crashing through the rest of the warehouse wall, leaving the building in a shuttering and unstructured stance. Thick pillars of stone jutted up through the ground and pushed the black clad fighters through the wall and further into the warehouse before pulling back into the ground and left no trace of their existence behind.

The brief pause in battle allowed the turtle to glance over at the retreating earth pillars, along with the surrounding men in black who went completely stiff as the earth pulled back in on itself. "Right on!" The turtle cheered, a fist pumping into the air above his head in response to the masked fighter's entrance into the warehouse as well, picking their way over the splintered mess of wood with several precise steps before once again engaging the men in black who rushed up at them. The turtle returned to fighting as well, nunchaku swinging left and right before he crouched low and swung out his leg to kick the feet out from beneath his opponents.

The fight seemed to be an endless onslaught against the strange duo, and thus is was noted by the masked fighter who seemed to be growing rather frustrated with their slow progress. "We're not even near a Foot hideout! Where are they all coming from?!" The masked fighter shouted over to the turtle, who seemed to taking the fight with about the same enthusiasm now as his partner was.

"Good question! But I'd rather ask the questions after we've beaten the snot out of these guys!" The turtle shot back while grabbing a guy by the back of the neck as he ran at him, using the momentum set up to turn about and toss him headlong into the open mouth a cargo container. The force of the entry caused the doors to swing shut and drop the locking handle down into its cradle. "Oh yeah! He shots, and he scores!"

The masked fighter jabbed their elbow into the stomach of an approaching man in black, forcing out his breath before twisting around with a roundhouse kick to the temple. "You're starting to sound like Raph!" The turtle's partner grinned beneath their animal faced mask, hands coming before them to form several seals before holding one for _tiger_. A red aura started to radiate out around their hands, flames feathering out as they had been summoned and molded through contact with the air. Sucking in a deep breath even while a mask obstructed their face, the fighter breathed out in one long exhale making sure that it tunneled over the _tiger_ seal. Carrying the flames that had grown, the fighter's breath forced the fire to literally explode out in one massive stream that sent a whole group of seven flailing backwards.

Another long exhale, and again the fire shot out at the men in black, burning away the fabric of their fatigues and eating away at the masks and headbands tied about their faces. Feeling a change in the temperature, the turtle chanced a quick glance back over his shoulder and grinned like a little kid on Christmas morning as he caught sight of his partner flame broiling their opponents. Even as he watched the fiery display, the turtle swung his nunchaku this way and that, picking off any of the men in black trying to come up on him.

With many of the guys in black on the ground or running away in retreat, the masked fighter stood rather proudly in their place, hands set on their hips and smiling beneath their mask. The turtle took a moment to clap for his partner, excited at how quickly they had dispatched with a vast majority of their enemy, even the ones he had been fighting decided to high-tail it out of there. Looking over at the turtle, the masked fighter caught sight of one last strangler who was attempting one last attack on the turtle. "Mikey, watch out!" The masked fighter called out while their hand dipped once more into the back pouch on their hip. A kunai was pulled out and then slung forward all in one quick motion, causing the turtle to jump and duck off to the side while his nunchaku swept out and backwards by accident.

The heavy wooden pole end of the weapon caught the guy in black, square in the face and sent him tumbling backwards letting the kunai sail right over him and continue on towards the back of the warehouse where the control console for the operating cranes. The razor sharp tip of the kunai dug deep into the panels, cracking buttons and shattering the thin metal face plate. Immediately sparks started to spit and hiss around the embedded kunai. The masked fighter made a strangled noise in their throat before scrambling over to their turtle friend and stood speechless at his side staring at the sparking mess that threatened a rather unpleasant ending to their night.

"Wow, that was an awesome throw!" The turtle commented happily, clapping his friend on the shoulder in praising gesture to their skill.

Staring wide-eyed through the slits in their mask, the fighter gawked in what seemed like personal horror at the mess in the back as it started to spit out more than just electrical sparks from itself. "You idiot!" The fighter shouted while turning around and grabbing the turtle by its shoulders, after which they then proceeded to shake him quickly. "Do you have any idea what I just hit back there?!"

"Uh, something expensive?" The turtle asked while looking rather dizzy from having been shaken by his partner.

Before the fighter could yell anything else at the turtle, the sounds of mini explosions caused both to go still and slowly look over towards the now sputtering control console. Both muttered a synchronized 'uh-oh' before exchanging looks and then ran for their lives out the nearest hole in the warehouse. Their feet and legs worked double time to get them as far away from the warehouse as possible, both leaping up towards the roof of the nearest low sitting building that they came across just as the control console in the warehouse finally overheated and gave up a large explosion that took out the remaining three walls and collapsed the tin shingled roof. Both the turtle and the masked fighter came to a stop, sliding a few steps across the slick roof top they were on top of, and looked back to watch the warehouse go up in one big fireball wreathed with black smoke.

"Uh...how about we just blame the Foot for this and call it a night?" The turtle asked, eyes glued to the burning mess they had just escaped.

The masked fighter nodded, hands coming up and pushing the animal face up on top of their head. "Mikey, I couldn't agree more." The tone of voice was freed up from the muffled confines of the mask, and with the mask removed, the oval shaped face of a young woman somewhere in her mid or late teens stared out at the burning wreck almost a good half a block from them. Her grey eyes were narrowed slightly, giving her a studious glare that the natural shape of her eyes seemed to further provoke.

The turtle, being called Mikey by his human companion, grinned down at her. "Then let's get the shell out of here then!" He cheered while throwing his hands up into the air, a massive grin on his face as he looked down at his female friend. Both turned around and jumped off the far edge of the roof, landing down in yet another dank alleyway and started making their way home. "Hey, hey, Sara! Can we stop and get a pizza on the way home?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two  
In Which How It All Began**

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_"Read between the lines --- because sometimes there's a ninja there."_ - **Ask A Ninja, Question 2: Ninja Sayings**__

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_Almost One Year Ago..._

A pair of deep grey eyes stared out the semi-clean window of a eleventh story apartment, a lazy and unamused look glowing deep within their gaze as they watched the traffic down below on the afternoon streets of Manhattan. The sounds of the city came back to a pair of ears, muffled and horribly mixed like some awful attempt at background noise. A heavy sigh escaped out over a pair of young lips, the grey eyes blinking as the head turned away from the endless cityscape view outside and shifted to stare at the open front door that two grown adults were bustling through with large cardboard boxes in their arms.

"Sweetheart, can you get the door for me?" The woman out of the pair called out, her path of direction aiming towards the kitchen area just off to the right of the doorway upon entering.

One lame sigh and shrug of the shoulders later, and a young teen was pushing herself up off the large windowsill of the bay window she had been using as a chair. Pattering over to the front door, barely a sound coming from her steps thanks in part to the fact that she had only socks pulled on over her feet bearing a rather vivid shade of red dye through the cotton weave. Shutting the door, the teen looked over into the kitchen where the woman was already unpacking the large box she had been carrying in her arms. Tableware, place settings, and other little kitchen oddities were starting on converge upon the small island counter top, giving the rather bland cream colored space a bright punch of color set in a rather playful Japanese restaurant theme.

"I'm surprised they let you into this city with those pieces." The girl muttered in comment towards the taste in kitchen themes the woman had. "Seriously mom, that's gotta be considered a high offense to the Japanese culture."

The woman glanced up and over at her daughter with a raised brow while setting down the traditional teapot she had carefully wrapped within a few layers of newspaper. "You know I appreciate your creative criticisms Sara." She replied, a rather playful smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth as she took the shots to her taste in kitchen style with the witty and dismissive humor that only a mother could posses.

Scoffing at her mother's comeback, Sara rolled her eyes while wandering off to track down her father who had seemed to disappear upon entering the apartment right after her mother. Moving was never an easy task, and this one was no different to say the least. The Reeve family had been uprooted from their home of near eighteen years in Colorado and moved out to New York when Mr. Reeve had been offered the chance to transfer to the company's big HQ in Manhattan. With him came his wife Minako and their sixteen-year-old daughter Sara. The family of three moved into a rather pleasant apartment complex just outside the heart of the city itself. Even though both Mr. Reeve and his wife were excited about the move and the change of scenery it was going to bring, their daughter was far their level of excitement considering the fact that she had to change schools and leave behind friends.

Further into the apartment, Sara found her father rummaging through the box he had brought in, pulling out the last of what had been packed away in the master bedroom. Pausing within the doorway, Sara leaned against the frame, arms coming up and crossing over her waist in a casual manner. "Is that actually the last of everything we own?"

"Indeed it is." Her father replied with a grin as he looked back towards her direction from his kneeling position on the carpeted floor. His dark brown eyes stared at her from over the top of his wire rimmed glasses that had slid down the bridge of his nose to rest at the middle. "What's your mom doing?" He asked, attention returning to his duty of unpacking the large box while also pushing his glasses back up to their initial position.

"Unpacking those color blinding pieces of kitchen utensils she calls 'unique'." Sara replied with a sarcastic sense of humor oozing over the last word to leave her mouth. "Dad, I still don't understand why we had to move. Why couldn't the company just promote you and keep you working in Colorado?" She asked, the look on her face dropping from the placid and even stare to one that had the corners of her mouth pulling down slightly. Her grey-eyed gaze held a mix between both angry and sad in response to the situation.

Pausing in his chore, Sara's father exhaled quietly beneath his breath before standing up to turn and face her. "Sara, you know if it was possible I would have taken that opportunity. I know it's going to be hard to get used to the change, but we'll do it together as a family." He assured her, his hands coming to rest on either of her shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze. "You're friends from back in Colorado will stay in touch with you, and you'll make new friends here in Manhattan. Who knows, maybe you'll find friends that you never knew existed, ones who will understand more about you Sharon and the others did."

Sara grunted quietly in her throat while pulling away from her dad, gaze adverted to the side as if the door frame held a more comforting scene to look at. "Dad, there is never going to be anyone who will understand." She muttered while leaving to retreat off to her new room.

Standing within the doorway, Sara's dad watched her trudge down the hall and then disappear into her room, the door shutting with a loud click. Exhaling, he ran a hand through his hair before catching sight of his wife coming up to his side with a look on her face he tried to dismiss with small smile. However, Minako Reeve knew better than to just take her husband's small smiles as an answer or reassurance, and decided to pursue her curiosity. Setting her hands upon his arm, she leaned against him, head lightly touching his shoulder.

"It's not going to get any easier on her." Minako stated quietly, eyes staring off towards her daughter's room. "It's only going to become more difficult with each passing year. She'll never feel like she fits in, and it'll be an ongoing fight for her to make sure the world about her knows she exists." She murmured in a tone of voice that hung heavy with deep sadness. Her eyes glistened with a worry she knew could no longer be acted upon, but merely acknowledged to an extent. "Richard, we're not going to be able to tell her it'll be alright."

"I know honey, I know. It's just that, I would give anything to just see her smile again without it being sarcastic or hallow." He replied.

Patting him on the arm, Minako nodded before heading back down the hall towards the kitchen while her husband lingered a bit longer in the hall before returning to his work in the master bedroom. While her parents finished the last of the unpacking, Sara opted to hide out in her new room, flopping down on her bed that had been hauled out to Manhattan from their old home. Lying out on her back, eyes turned up to stare at the ceiling above her, Sara traced the fine swirling patterns of the plaster that had been smoothed on to give it a more finished texture. They had all been up since four in the morning, and the fatigue of the whole move was starting to take its toll on the teenager. With hands tucked behind her head to set a barrier between her and the new beddings her mother had picked up that afternoon, she seemed uncomfortable just lying on her bed.

Exhaling through her nose, Sara rolled over on to her side, eyes closing before they could stare across at the wall for long. It only took a brief few minutes before the teen had conked out and was napping soundly in the confines of her new environment. Her mind dreamed of various things, the memory of her school days in Colorado, hanging out with her friends, being scolded by numerous teachers for her rambunctious outbursts during class, and even of the massive family gatherings she would attend with her parents. However, as her dreams remained serene dwelt more within the fonder moments of her life, Sara's dreams soon started to warp and shift like a scratched video. The scene changing at a family gathering far back to her very first memory as an infant, normally something that not even the most photographic of memories could pull off.

The large traditional Japanese sitting room that belonged to the grandparents on her mom's side of her family, normally a warm cozy place to reside in, twisted and grew dark as it warped in upon itself. A dank and misty aura started to slowly swirl into the room as all light seemed to vanish within the consuming mouth of the dark. All around, candles sitting within blood red paper lanterns burst to life and cast red shafts of light in a criss-crossing pattern throughout the whole room.

_**Set me free. Break the seal. Let me out!**_

The darkness of the room erupted from the last shred that cowered in a far back corner, springing forth like a crawling disease that blotted and consumed everything in its path. As the darkness rushed up to swallow her whole, Sara shot up in bed wide awake and panting. Sweat beaded across her brow as the dream turned nightmare had caused a sense of deep panic to surge through her at the last second. Staring across her dimly lit room, Sara's grey eyes remained wide, pupils near constricted from the adrenaline pumping through her body as it trembled beneath her clothes. _It was just a dream. But that voice...I've heard it before...somewhere - _

"Sara!" Her mother's singing call was muffled through the closed door and from the distance between her room and the kitchen where her mother was still in.

Blinking a few times to refresh her vision, Sara ran a hand through her dark hair and cleared her throat as she started to push herself off the full sized bed. Again her mother called for her, this time the volume of her voice suggested that she had stepped into the hallway to make sure she was heard. Groaning in response, Sara stood up and trudged over to her door and pulled it open just in time to see her mother standing there with hand raised in a curled gesture as she had been ready to knock. Giving her mother a tired and unamused look, Sara lifted a groggy brow in question.

"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie. Did I wake you up?" Her mother asked, brow scrunching to create worry lines across her older but still attractive face. A slow sluggish shake of the head in response to the question was enough for Minako to take as an answer, and thus she nodded back. "Okay, well would you mind going out and picking up dinner for me?"

"Dinner? Where at?" Sara mumbled while stifling a yawn behind her hand.

Minako smiled at her daughter while holding up a twenty dollar bill. "There's a pizza place a few blocks from here. Your dad ordered about a half hour ago and it should be ready by now." She explained, hoping that she would agree to go pick it up versus pulling the stubborn card.

Looking between the twenty and her mom, Sara rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders while reaching over to the small computer chair sitting halfway between where she stood and the empty desk sitting against the wall. "Fine." Grabbing the dark blue zip-up hoodie from the back of the chair, Sara started to pull it on as she moved to leave her room. "Anything else?" She asked while shuffling down the hall with her mother following right behind.

"Nope. Just make sure you take your cellphone with you." Minako reminded while reaching over her daughter's shoulder to remind her of the twenty she was going to need.

Taking the twenty and grabbing her phone from its place on the kitchen counter, as it had been charging since the afternoon, Sara paused at the front door to pull her shoes on. Calling out a good-bye to her dad, wherever he was in the house, and after allowing her mother to plant a kiss on her forehead, Sara headed out the door tucking her small flip phone into the front pocket of her jeans. _Why do I always end up being the errand runner?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three  
Special Delivery**

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"_Wise man say, 'forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza.'"_ - **Michelangelo,**_**Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles**_

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"Okay, that'll be ten seventy-nine, kiddo." The man behind the counter summarized after ringing up an order for an extra large one topping pizza; the house special. Taking the offered twenty, the cashier entered the tender and with a cloud _**cha-ching**_, the drawer popped open and the change back was scooped out.

Pocketing the change handed over to her, and then taking the thin warm cardboard box containing dinner, Sara gave a friendly good-bye to the crew of _DeFranco Brothers __Pizzeria_and headed back out into the Manhattan night air. Luckily enough the beginning stages of the winter season were merciful enough to not begin its unloading of stored up snow, and for now the young teen dealt with the biting chill that tickled her nose upon immediate contact with the exposed appendage. Wrinkling her nose in response to the cold air, Sara focused her thoughts else where and not on the temperature; like getting home quickly to ensure that her family would at least be eating warm pizza versus having to toss one slice in the microwave at a time.

The streets of the area were rather quiet that night, a few cars passing by, many being taxis versus personally owned vehicles. Sara's grey eyes glanced off down the mouths of alleyways as they were passed, taking note of the small curls of steam that rose up from grates and manholes further inside. This gave the dimly lit, or barely lit, narrow passages a rather unsettling feel during the dark hours of the day. Grimacing at the thought of running into anything down those dark alleys (as cliché as it sounded), Sara tried to set her mind on something else other than the possibility of being ambushed by low life scum prowling the streets. _The only people out on the street at this time of night are freaks and weirdos! Well, wait, it's only going on eight...okay maybe the semi freaks and weirdos._ Cracking a rather cheeky grin at her own mental comments, Sara picked up the pace so as not be placed in her own self imposed category.

From the Pizzeria to the apartments, it was a good two blocks and that meant at least a decent twenty minute or so walk either way. Sighing in a quiet exhale, she adjusted the way she held the pizza box, the warmth coming from the food starting to make her arms feel damp beneath the sleeves of her hoodie. Pausing at the streetlight and smashing the button for the crosswalk, she could feel the fine hairs on the back of her neck start to prickle as ears twitched ever so slightly at the oddest of sounds that didn't register in her mind as being part of the normal city soundtrack. She wasn't alone on that street, a precognitive sixth sense warning her to this as she waited patiently for the crosswalk light to change. _Oh hell, what am I waiting for?! There isn't even a car to worry about hitting me if I walk now! _Muttering under her breath as she looked left and then right, Sara started to cross the street.

An extra pair of footsteps fell into line behind her, their sound thumping heavily as whoever it was following her walked without any care of how they placed their weight distribution with each step. She didn't need eyes in the back of her head to know that there were indeed several grimy looking individuals holding a place behind her some six feet or so. _Lovely_. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she listened closely to count the individual sets of steps coming up on her. _They're walking with different strides, and by the sound of it...two tall and average, one short and heavy set, two more tall and junked out with metal "jewelery". None of them seem too sure in their walk, so either I'm just mistaking their intentions for the evening, or they're brand new to this whole ambush and mug thing. _Sara's mind began calculating the possibilities and scenarios of what could transpire in the next five seconds...

"Hey baby." A male voice called out as the man himself ran up to her side, tossing an arm about her shoulders and hovered over her. "Looks like you got dinner plans. How's about you share them with me, eh?" He smirked, nose ring clinking and lip piercing scratching against his teeth.

A few more of his '_friends_' caught up on her other side while the last kept up a close guard at the back. Each one of them held unfriendly and disgusting grins on their faces as dirty thoughts started to race through their minds. Each one of them had to at least be in his early twenties maybe twenty-five at the oldest. Dressed in ragged band t-shirts, black jeans, and all kinds of black and metal studded accessories decking out their play punk appearance, they weren't exactly GQ material.

Glancing briefly out of the corner of her eye, Sara took note of the arm draped about her shoulders. "Either you take your arm off, or I'll take it off for you." Her tone of voice was steady, oddly placid, and yet each spoken word was frost bitten and grew colder than the early winter chill to the very end.

The guy snorted a laugh while still hanging about her, and looked back towards his friends. "Looks like we got ourselves a keeper here boys!" He hooted while grabbing a handful of Sara's hoodie with his hand and jerked her into a violent stop so that way they could form a rather claustrophobic circle about her. "So now, you ready for the night of your life baby?" He sneered, face coming in dangerously close to her own, the foul stench of rancid alcohol on his breath.

However, the only answer he was going to receive was a swift palm into the face that sent his head snapping backwards on his neck while blood started to leak from either nostril as the force of the blow had been rather significant. The guy cried out in pain while clutching to his nose with both hands, swearing through his teeth in a slurred manner as his temper flared from being struck by a girl. Neither one of his friends came to his aid, as instead they stared with wide eyes after having been stunned stupid with such a display of self protection on the part of the girl they were so keen on harassing.

Still holding the pizza box, Sara stared at the demoralized guy who was still swearing and trying to shake off the pain after being being hit so hard. The expression on her own face held a bit more to it than the even look she had been maintaining for the better part of fifteen minutes. There was a sense of near wonder or even a smug satisfaction at what had happened, except, her whole body position suggested that she had yet to even really move. Finally gaining a grip over himself, the struck down punk shook his head while giving off an angry chuckle as he faced her once again. There were identical trails of blood coming down from either nostril, the crimson stain having been smeared over his mouth and up his cheek after he tried to wipe it away with a leather gloved hand. "You cocky little bitch. You're gonna regret that." He snapped before swinging out at her in a wild fashion.

As uneven of a wild swing as it had been, the blow hit its mark, striking her in the left side of her face. However, yet another surprise would overtake the small unruly gang as a loud pop sounded and a pillar of smoke was now all that took presence in the spot that Sara had been standing in. The smoke drifted away, leaving the gang to stumble backwards in fear at the empty spot within their circle. There was something just not right about what had happened, something very weird. All five of the punk gangsters looked about in every which direction possible to see if maybe they were being setup or there was a prank being pulled on them.

"Is it safe for me to guess that you five idiots of nothing else better to do with your time, other than harassing every female body that walks down the street?" Sara's voice spoke up from behind the shorter and huskier guy out of the group, causing his bloated and sweating face to look back over his heavily studded shoulder as best as his no-neck would allow. His large bulging eyes rimmed in cheap and smeared black eye liner looked as though they were about to pop out of his head like that wolf in the Droopy Dog cartoons.

"Seriously. Did the school system fail you idiots?" Her voice spoke up again in question, but her mouth didn't move and the direction in which came from had changed. Another guy jumped as he realized that she was almost standing right beside him. Looking quickly between where he stood and where his overweight friend stood, his mind started to reel and race with the rather obvious fact that there were now two of the same girl. Two exact girls of the same girl they had planned to snatch off the street. Two of the same girl, identical right down to the black and teal colored Pumas she wore on her feet.

"And here I thought they passed that whole 'Leave no child behind' crap a few years ago." Yet again, her voice spoke from still another direction. This time behind the guy she had struck in the nose, breaking the hooked appendage pierced with several rings. He stared slack jawed at the girl, looking back over either shoulder at the other two places in which she also was standing in with arms crossed over her chest and a rather obvious smirk on her face. "What's a matter? Confused?" Sara asked, her tone taking on a near baby talk to mock the confused group of wannabe punks.

The led guy, still bleeding from his broken nose, seemed to suddenly perk up as an idea struck him at that moment. "Hehe, I know what this is! Yeah, that mind-freak dude on TV did something like this before. It's all smoke and mirrors!" He assured his friends, who all chuckled in response but still held the same uneasy looks on their faces that they were so desperate to hide behind.

Sara couldn't help but further pull a widening grin across her face as she dropped her arms from their crossed position and brought up at a loosely bent position at her sides. Her right hand curled into a fist while her left hand came up before her at a slanted angle. "Sucks for you then." She muttered before rushing forward from all three directions at the group of now further panicking guys. Punch, kick, right upper cut, roundhouse, quick jabs, and a few other strikes were dished out on all five of them from the "smoke and mirror" replications that hit just as hard and fast as the real thing.

All five guys dropped to the ground, twitching and gurgling in response to the severe beating they had been dealt within five minutes at the hands of one girl times three. Dusting her hands off, the real Sara looked over at her two dopplegangers who were grinning like the Cheshire Cat and stood proudly over the rather pleasant smack down they had handed out. There were two loud pops and the dopplegangers of just one girl became puffs of smoke that wafted away on the incoming breeze. "Morons." She muttered while pulling out her cellphone to call the police, altering them to suspicious gang activity one block west of the _DeFranco Brothers Pizzeria._ Flipping her phone closed after the call ended, Sara stepped over the laid out bodies, not even pausing in her walk as she gave the broken nosed guy one last kick to the stomach as she passed just to make sure he stayed down.

A few jogging steps and she entered the alleyway nearby where she had stashed the pizza her mom had sent her out for. Yanking the box free of its up high hide-away between the brick wall of the building on her left and a steam pipe, Sara carefully moved it around and opened the lid to make sure it was still looking good.

However, "Dammit. This thing looks like the Noid got to it or something." She groaned at the sight of toppings dangling from the inside of the box lid and pizza sauce spewed everywhere but on the pizza itself. "Hey, what a minute." Her eyes had come to rest upon on rather odd looking void in the shape of the pizza wheel itself. _There's a slice missing?!_"What the...?! Ah man, mom's gonna kill me." Sara griped while shutting the box lid and tilted her head back to stare at the star spotted sky overhead, although it was rather difficult to actually see the stars in the city. "There is no god."

Exhaling in bitter defeat, Sara trudged out of the alleyway and started back on her path towards the apartment, the distant wailing of sirens overtaking the night and providing the only source of noise to break the silent walk home. While the teen walked home, her steps did not go unwatched even now. There were eyes watching her since she had departed from the pizzeria. Eyes that had grown worried when she had been surrounded by the gang, and then quickly changed to surprise after watching her produce skills that they had never seen before.

"Hey, Donny, what do you think she is?" A whispered voice asked from somewhere up on the roof line high above the streets. The whisper had been out of the need to stay quiet and unseen, but more from awe and surprise.

"She looks like any other human girl." Another voice replied, its tone of a normal level, but still held a rather curious tone to it. "But she moved like a ninja. Like us. But those techniques she used, replicating dopplegangers of herself, that's advanced ninjutsu that we haven't been taught yet."

"Still, gotta admire a girl who can take care of herself though. She put those idiots through the wringer." Yet another voice broke in with a rather Brooklyn influenced accent to its edge. There's more admiration and praise than curiosity with the words than the other two had expressed.

"We should let Splinter know about this. For all we know, this girl could be part of the Foot." A fourth voice stated, pointing what the other three seemed to neglect in their process of thinking. "Come on."

With that said, the four voices vanished, their watchful eyes not needed as the unseen escort to one lone teenage girl on the streets of Manhattan...for the moment anyways.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Note: **_Before this next chapter starts, I would like to point out that the idea behind Sara's doppleganger technique that she used comes from the _**_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu _**_from the anime/manga NARUTO used by the title character himself – Uzumaki Naruto, created by Masashi Kishimoto._

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**Chapter Three  
New York Rarity: Ninjas In The Subway**

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"_I'd like to think that ninjas speak the international language of pain." - _**Ask A Ninja, Question 45: Ninja Omnitrois**

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Sara stood looking rather dejected before the open door of the apartment her family had moved into, her fingers not sure as to whether or not she hold the pizza box with a steady and firm grip or a loose and cautious grip. She could hardly give her mother a steady look as she stared down at the dented pizza box and remained quiet, therefore creating a rather awkward situation half way between the inside of the apartment and out in the hall. Minako Reeve stared down at her daughter, curious as to what could have taken her so long to return home, and why it was exactly that dinner looked as though, _the Noid trampled it after tossing the box into the gutter_. Minako smirked quietly to herself, knowing that there was the possibility that her daughter may have or was thinking this exact same thought as well. 

After another odd minute passed, not a word passing between mother and daughter, and so Sara decided to hand the box over to her mother by holding it out towards her. The sound of the barely surviving pizza shifting across the inside cardboard scraped out in a muffled tone. Brows lifting in response to her gesture, Minako slowly took the box from Sara, and once she had the cardboard box in her hands completely, she began to giggle. "Honey, what happened?" She asked, her laugh tainting each and every word as she moved to the side and gestured with a nod for her to come back in.

"I killed dinner." Sara replied while walking into the apartment, unzipping the front of her hoodie as she did. Peeling the extra layer of clothing off, Sara tossed it down rather strongly on the back of the kitchen table chair. Yanking the same chair back away from the table, she sat down and then proceeded to bang her head upon the table top without so much as another word.

Coming around the corner of the hallway, Richard Reeve appeared, glasses perched upon the top of his head and the sleeves of his sweater shirt pushed up into the crook of his elbows. He smiled at his family at first, only to suddenly pull a questioning look towards his wife while gesturing at the sullen Sara bent over the table with forehead planted firmly against the table top. Minako grinned while shaking her head as she lifted up the lid of the pizza box to reveal the disfigured meal. A laugh escaped Richard's mouth suddenly as he glanced over at his daughter once more. "The Noid."

Dinner that night consisted of battered pizza and whatever quick preparation food that had been dug out from the half filled pantry by whatever Minako had picked up on her few errands out that day. By the time dinner was finished, the table cleared, dishes cleaned and set to dry, it was well proceeding towards the wee morning hours; 1:00 am to be precise. Splitting off from her parent's company, Sara made her way towards the hall bathroom that she would use as her own since the small bedroom she now lived in was without one of its own. Such was the fate for anything outside a master bedroom even in an apartment. A quick shower and the teen was in bed by the time her digital clock clicked over to glare 1:45am. Grey eyes closing, her mind feathered with worry as to whether or not that voice was going to speak out in her dreams again.

A dreamless night passed, and at 9:30 am, the alarm clock switched over to the radio and began playing the preset station that Sara had slid the tune dial over. The radio personality quoted the day's traffic report that had come in and reminded the listeners of the date before switching over to the preselected single to further jump start the day. The groggy and sleepy-eyed Sara pulled her head out from beneath one of the three pillows she had on her bed. Her dark hair was a mess, the long bangs of her hair obscuring her vision and forcing the teen to run a hand through the nappy mess to push it out the way. Glancing over at the clock, and licking her lips to rid her mouth of stale cotton taste, she groaned at the red numbers staring back at her from the clock face. _Another day in Manhattan. Yeah me. _

Twenty minutes later and the only daughter of the Reeve household was pulling on her left sock and yawning as she stood up from her bed, fully dressed and somewhat ready for the day. Walking out of her bedroom, a black hair tie clamped between her lips as she gathered the long layers of her hair at the back of her head. Swiftly looping her hair together with the tie, Sara entered the kitchen to find that it was rather empty. Her parents were nowhere to be found sipping down the first cup of coffee of the morning, or reading the paper at the kitchen table. In fact, "Mom? Dad?"

Her calls went unanswered. Curious, Sara wandered further into the kitchen were she came face to face with a note tacked to the freezer door with a magnet. Pulling the paper free, she quickly scanned the handwriting from her mother, learning that until the evening she was on her own and that a spare key was left on the door hook if she decided to step out. Shrugging her shoulders, Sara set the note aside and began digging out breakfast from the fridge. Settling on a breakfast bun and a glass of orange juice, the teen headed off into the living room to watch TV. The Channel Six Eyewitness News was the first thing to pop on the screen, the anchors already speaking about whatever had been setup for them. The covered piece revolving around the mysterious disappearance of Max Winters and the slowly increasing crime rate that had sprouted suddenly in Manhattan.

The news had never really excited her before, and right now didn't have any further affect on her as she turned the TV off. Swallowing the last piece of her breakfast and dumping her empty glass off in the sink, she made a beeline for the door. Snatching the spare key and pulling her shoes on, Sara left the apartment behind to take to the streets of the city and do some exploring. Walking back down to the pizzeria, Sara passed it up and moved further into the city to check out the local stores and restaurants.

By mid afternoon Sara had located a Subway, McDonalds, Taco Bell, six different Starbucks locations (all within walking distance from one another ironically), a Dunkin Donuts , numerous Chinese and Japanese take-out spots, and the random assortment of shopping outlets varying from clothes to books and everything in between. After having walked nearly two miles from where her family's apartment was located and taking the subway another good mile or so further out, the teen decided to take a break. Taking a seat on a public bench inside a park she had come across, Sara stretched her legs out before her while looking up into the milky grey sky overhead. It was overcast again, just like yesterday, and the winter chill was breathing in from over the ocean waters further out.

_Geez, this place is almost like back home. Except for the morons roaming around the streets at night._ A smirk cracked along the corners of her mouth as she recalled the other night. _Smoke and mirrors my ass, and Criss Angel and kiss it as well!_ A laugh cracked behind her lips as she closed her eyes for a moment, only to open them again as that same precognitive sixth sense of hers picked up on another presence. A presence that was trying to remain hidden and inconspicuous. Those grey orbs stared up at the sky, squinted in response to the light of the sun that was still trying to break through the cloud cover. _Whoever it is, they're good. I almost didn't even pick up on them. _

Leaning further back in her seat on the bench, Sara let her neck lull over the back so that she stared into the trees and thick bush cover behind her. The dense cover made it difficult to pick out anything unusual, but her eyes could spot even the slightest difference in unfamiliar areas. Common sense, rule of thumb, or just years of playing the eye spy book games and "does this belong" at school, whatever you want to call it, Sara was able to catch rougher surfaces mixed within the glossy leaves of the ground bushes. "Hmm." She mused quietly before narrowing her gaze on that one certain spot, focusing intently to make sure she was picking out the right difference. "_Nani, nani, nani?_" She murmured in a sing-song tone of voice, fingers strumming across the top of the bench back. "Just what is it that looks rough and almost rock-like amongst the bushes?"

A gulp sounded from the bushes, causing Sara to lift a curious brow as she turned in her seat so that way she sat sideways on the bench and stared at it right-side up. Hearing someone gulp from within the bushes was the last thing she had expected to hear. _I really didn't expect to hear that. I thought maybe it was just a rock I was seeing. But there's someone really in there. _Her gaze never once blinked as that would break her concentration and the diamond pattern shapes she was picking up through the leaves. As her body tensed, readying itself to react for whatever the situation would bring. However, the sudden rush of several bikes zooming passed broke her concentration, her gaze momentarily looking back over her shoulder to watch the bikes fly by. Grunting quietly at her allowance of distraction, Sara looked back towards the bushes, eyes scanning for that odd appearance amongst the leaves. Alas! no matter how hard she could look, or how keen her vision was, the teen wasn't going to see it again.

"Crap." She muttered beneath her breath before shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket and started off down the park path. Her walk through the park only lasted a half hour before she left and decided to head back home, but not before catching a street vendor hot dog to munch on.

The return trip home seemed much less of an adventure and held none of the minor excitement that Sara had felt walking around that day, free to go wherever she wanted for the moment and to do what she pleased. Sitting on the subway, her mind drifted back to Colorado, her friends giving her upset looks after the announcement about the move, and the last day of school she spent sulking through each of her classes. A sense of loneliness began to creep across her emotions, overtaking her with a dark gloom to the realization that she was alone and had always been alone. She may have called them her friends, and they of her, but not one of them really knew anything about her beyond likes and dislikes. None of them would understand.

Slumping down in her seat, eyes glued to the floor, she stared at the rubber padding while her hands twitched within her lap. _Even if I told them, they wouldn't accept me after that. They'd think I was either crazy, or would think I was a freak. A monster. _Her facial expression twisted into a grimace for a few seconds before flattening out as the subway car pulled to a smooth stop and the name of the stop was called out over the intercom. Getting up out of her seat, she followed the crowd pushing out of the car doors, stepping out on to the subway platform and waited for her transfer to arrive. The meter overhead winked out each individual time, Sara's needed train not arriving for another good twenty minutes or so. Within two the platform had cleared completely and the train departed, leaving the teen to herself with no one around. Off down the tunnel the train horn blared, the echo bouncing back as a last mournful good-bye.

Exhaling heavily through her nose, Sara leaned up against one of the tile covered pillars supporting the hallowed out passage beneath the streets of New York. Crossing her arms over her chest to shrug out the damp cold that seemed to only be found in the subway, Sara closed her eyes and allowed her ears to play look-out for her. It didn't take long before those grey eyes of hers opened almost immediately in one swift motion and narrowed in a studious manner. Someone else was in that subway terminal, a lot of someones to be more accurate, and they stood behind the sixteen-year-old in a uniform group dressed head to toe in black, save for the red band tied about their brow. Slowly, Sara turned her head to glance back over her shoulder, pausing midway so that only the lower portion of her face could be seen in profile while her long bangs obscured the view to her eyes.

"You of the Haruno Clan; we have been waiting for you." One of them at the forefront spoke up, his tone of voice accented heavily with an Asian influence that Sara picked up on immediately, and knew it to be of Japanese origin.

_What the hell?! How did...?_ Sara's face lifted, her grey eye staring out at the group behind her with what looked like a lifeless glare as he eye was missing its usual peaceful shine. Her face remained frozen with tight lipped look that spoke neither anger nor surprise to what had been said.

The forefront of the group snickered quietly beneath the all consuming face mask, his cocky grin hidden from view. "You are the _container_ they have spoken about for the passed sixteen years. And as such, there is someone who would like to meet you." He stated, a finger pointing at the teen.

In return, the corner of Sara's mouth twitched with a smirk before she vanished like a shimmer in the air, evaporating from view, only to reappear high above the group of black dressed persons and came shooting straight down with right foot and leg fully extended out. Every piece of her young body crawled now with anticipation, the sole of her shoe bound foot aimed right for the one who had speaking to her. The speed in which she seemed to have moved in was beyond impressive as it left the group stunned and looking about wildly, but not well enough as the bottom of Sara's foot collided with the temple of the speaker. Pushing force forward, her blow slung the man off to his own far right, and as she pushed off it added to the momentum in which would be used to inflict a rather serious headache after impact with the first pillar his body caught. In her push backwards off the guy's head, Sara tucked her body down so that as she landed, the balls of her feet were the first to hit the pavement while the rest of her foot followed to help absorb and redistribute the shock of the landing.

Her eyes focused in on the headbands that the others bore, her mind picking out the kanji stitched across the front in black thread and matching it to a symbol she had been repeatedly shown in her childhood by her grandfather. A symbol of an enemy to the family...to the Haruno Clan. "The Foot." Her lips muttered the word as she sized up what stood before her, weapons drawing and swinging to scare her and demoralize her own sense of courage. Huffing an unimpressed laugh, Sara crouched low, her leg muscles tensing as they built and readied a supply of power to be used in the next second as she pushed off the ground, her body arching forward in a lung and then disappeared again like the first time.

The Foot ninja were prepared, ready to defend themselves and then attack at once. Their goal was to overwhelm the teen with their numbers, but whether or not that was going to work would have to wait patiently as for the moment, they were oblivious as to where she had disappeared to at the moment. Without any clear sign of warning, Sara appeared from the side, rushing in with a quiet lung that went unnoticed until she planted a foot in the side of a ninjas' head and rebounded off in time to miss being hit with a nunchaku that had been swung out at the hand of much more observant ninja.

The fight had officially been initiated, and one teen now faced off against a group of twenty Foot Ninja that were taller and physically bigger than her. As they rushed her, the teen pulled her arms up to sit level with her chest as she slipped her feet apart, widening her stance as she prepared to either strike or move as the first one reached her. Unarmed combat came first, the Foot ninja swinging out at her with a precise and well aimed fist that swept in quickly from the right. A forearm blocked the blow while she pushed her body forward to drive a shoulder into the chest of the ninja before pushing off the ground in a jump. Planting her free hand on the ninjas' shoulder, Sara used the taller man as a vault of sorts, flipping over him and clearing his six foot frame with relative ease, and landed behind him.

A roundhouse kick caught the next ninja in the side of face while the spin pulled into Sara off into a low crouch as two more of the Foot gathering sprung for her. Coming up at them in angle, a right punch across and then a left hook took both grown men down leaving the teen to duck as another tried to swing at her in midst of a blind spot. Planting her hands on the cold concrete of the platform, Sara kicked up and out as if heading into a handstand and twisted sideways to throw herself down again in a pose reminiscent to that of a comic book superhero web-head. Seeing the numbers close in around her as the impressive display of combat skills on her part weren't enough in a solo assault, Sara pulled her hands up before forming a hand seal that took the index and middle finger of each hand to cross over one another.

Immediately the group was surrounded with several other distinct bodies that were undeniable copies of the same teen, and each one stood with a smirk on her face. Standing up as well, Sara dashed forward, her dopplegangers following in and attacking the Foot with real punch and kick combinations that sent a mass frenzy through the group. The real Sara skirted through the midst of the group, her low punches and sweeping kicks felling a few here and there and moving on to leave her dopplegangers the task of making sure they didn't get up all too soon. Sliding out from the middle on her feet, right hand extended out with palm tracing the semi-smooth surface of the platform as she finally came to a stop with her back up against the nearest wall (unfortunately). 

The several dopplegangers that had given Sara the upper hand for a moment, were struck down by the few aptly skilled ninja. The dopplegangers gave short cries before disappearing in individual puffs of smoke that drifted off down the dark subway tunnel, leaving Sara on her own. _Damn!_Still holding herself in a kneeling crouch, Sara quickly started noting her options and realizing that she could be in serious trouble now. _Guess I don't have a choice. _Grimacing at the thought, Sara began forming hand seals yet again, a sequence that included – _serpent, hare, boar, dog, bird, ram, monkey..._her hands almost pausing for the last seal, as if her mind toyed with the thought of not pulling out her new trick upon the Foot. _Well what choice do I have?! It's not like anyone will pop up out of nowhere_ – That final thought was suddenly interrupted, as what sounded like a battle cry, exploded from off to the far corner of the where the subway tunnel bloomed into the open platform.

Both the Foot and Sara glanced over towards the source of the cry, distracted for the moment from their personal fight. Fortunately enough for the teen, the Foot grew rather agitated as they pulled weapons to the ready with all bodies turning for a new fight. Not seeing what it was they were, Sara looked to their numbers once again with a look of uncertain curiosity before looking back again to watch as four distinct bodies appeared amidst the Foot. Blinking a few times and even rubbing at her eyes, Sara felt a sense of uneasy shock come over her as she watched what she could only describe as four humanoid turtles begin battling the Foot.

Grey eyes pulled open in a wide stare, shocked to see such a sight as four human sized turtles moving about with a speed that was near as fluent as her own. They ducked, weaved, and bobbed through the Foot, striking out at the same time to catch one or more at the same time in a succession that had the teen dumbstruck and stunned silent at the same time. Watching turtles take on a criminal ninja platoon was not an every day occurrence, let alone anything you saw on the rare occasion, and thus the frozen slack-jawed state that one now found Sara Reeve standing in as she watched Foot ninja fall left and right. That dumbstruck state wouldn't last much longer as Sara's grey eyes caught sight of several ninja making a break for her direct position as they had not forgotten her presence in the subway.

Smirking as her body automatically pulled into an opening stance, Sara held her left hand out towards them while her right went up above her head in an angled position. Within a few seconds the ninja closed in, and Sara pushed down on her heel while kicking off with her other foot to spin her body left with arms swinging out. Her hands found points that once struck caused the first ninja to hit the ground and wither in agony. Ducking out of the way from a follow up blow that another ninja launched, Sara's right foot found a mark in the face of the same ninja as he tried to move in for a new strike. Taking a few running steps to meet the next Foot ninja, Sara pushed off the ground in her last step, springing forward at the ninja as if taking a high step while pulling her right leg straight up and almost over her head. Planting her left foot in the ninjas' chest, she brought her right leg down to drive the heel of her foot down into the shoulder of her enemy. Sara's blow struck hard, cracking the bone in the top of the ninjas' shoulder and used the momentum she had created to front flip over the now stumbling enemy who was dropping quickly to his knees.

Landing expertly, Sara started to turn her gaze back over her shoulder to smirk in her victory, only to not find that bit successfully completed as the back of her neck was struck with the blunt chop of a gloved hand. Without realizing it or seeing it, Sara had missed a Foot using the shadows as cover to slink up behind her while his comrades acted as a decent distraction. Her vision became blurry as the pain of the blow sprawled up through the back of her head, crawling forward down her forehead and disrupting her ability to see. A sickening pinch twisted her gut as she realized what had just happened all to late for a proper response. Falling forward, vision fading out into a fuzzy mess, the last thing she caught sight of before things went black, was the shape of something much more bulkier than a Foot coming towards her. The last thing she heard was the thwack and gurgle of someone being struck as she herself fell forward with the last thought of how incredibly painful it was going to be when her body slammed down into the merciless pavement.

While that would have been the result of her own run of bad luck, Sara was spared this unfortunate fate that she herself had bestowed upon many of the Foot who had come with the sole purpose of taking her prisoner. The Foot who had struck her, hit the pavement first, bouncing once before rolling on to his side and lying still. For Sara, the collision with the concrete never came. Instead she was caught just after her knees hit the ground first, lean muscular green arms catching the teen and giving support to keep her still as she blacked out.

"Man, that was close!" The youngest of the turtles sighed while stepping around his older brother and the human girl he had caught, making his way over to the Foot ninja he had struck via another Foot ninjas' tonfa he had nabbed and thrown. Prodding the ninja with his own foot to make sure he was completely knocked out.

"No kidding." The eldest of the four agreed while shifting the girl in his arms so that he was able to pick her up. With her neck resting against his left forearm and her long legs draping over his right, the turtle looked over towards his other two brothers who were surveying the heap of black clad ninja groaning in response to the beating they had received. "By the way, nice shot Mikey."

"Ah, it was nothing." The younger turtle grinned while tucking his hands behind his head sheepishly. "Is she gonna be okay Leo?" He asked while bouncing up beside his brother, a look of deep concern pulling its way across his face, eyes scrunching beneath the orange colored band that tied about to the back of his head.

For a moment he was quiet, his own amber-eyed gaze narrowing a bit in a studious stare down at the girl in his arms. "I'm not sure. She's still breathing, which is a good sign. But we need to get her to Splinter to be on the safe side." He replied, brow furrowing out of a sense of slight frustration beneath the blue mask that tied about his face like his younger brother.

The other two turtles joined them, the one wearing a purple mask over his face held a curious look as he peered over his brother's shoulder at the unconscious girl. "She used that same technique again, replicating copies of herself to fight the Foot." He mused with an intrigued sense of admiration for her talents.

The second turtle grunted, arms folding over his chest in an annoyed manner. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just get going before anymore of the Foot show up and we have to mow through them." He muttered while almost stalking off towards the dark entrance of the subway tunnel, his more fiery amber eyes narrowed beneath his red mask. Somehow, he seemed much more irritated than the other three, for whatever reason that was only he knew.

Shrugging, the other three turtles knew better than to fight at this point when they were already in agreement to leave anyways. Taking the lead to his two younger brothers; Leo followed after his brooding brother and the second oldest out of the four, taking care not to jar the teen girl he was carrying off in his arms and further broaden whatever injuries she had sustained in the fight with the Foot Clan.

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_**Author's Note: **__Hand seals being used to activate ninjutsu techniques are a reference idea picked up from Masashi Kishimoto's NARUTO and even influenced by Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven during the complete collection of I think eight or ten stealth kills to gain a new attack or special move. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five  
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles**

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"_Damn."_ - **Raphael, **_**Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles**_

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_The sitting room was dark, over shadowed with a creeping chill that the haunting flames of lit candles swaying within red paper lanterns only gave a further ominous and uneasy feel to. The room was empty, void of any comforting items that normally would have populated the space. At the center of the room, the air seemed to twist and shimmer in an oily kaleidescope that distorted the rest of the room behind it. The air was thick, smothering the room in a heavy blanket that pressed down in a near suffocating manner._

_**You should have broken the seal. You should have let me out, Little One. I would have given you the power to eliminate your enemies.**_

_Sara stood before the distorted space in the middle of the room, glancing about with her eyes only, searching for the disembodied voice that sent a blood curdling chill down her spine. There was something horribly familiar about the voice as it slithered about her with unseen clawed hands that traced her every line and curve, prodding for a weakness...a loose seam. Feeling the clammy cold writhing about her, a sense of panic started to rise up within her, causing a frantic search from the spot she seemed cemented to. Glancing down at her feet, Sara's eyes widened as red iridescent coils threaded up her legs like a demonic vine. Sara began to thrash, hands gripping to the coils and viciously making a desperate effort to pry the vile things off her._

_**Let me out. You need me. You need my power. Let. Me. OUT!**_

_The voice roared, the sound resonating throughout the whole room as if a massive freight train had passed through, the growth of the coils speeding in response. More of the coils slithered in from across the floor, lunging up at the frightened teen, latching on and consuming her body beneath their unbearable presence until only her face was left exposed, her mouth gasping for a panicked breath as she tried to mutter out a cry of protest._

Sara's grey eyes fluttered beneath her closed lids before opening wide, pupils constricting as she sucked in the panicked breath she had been unable to take in her nightmare. For a moment she lay still, staring up at a ceiling that was constructed from a dark brown brick that appeared to be weathered and scared by time yet still retained a classic look. The pupils of her eyes were returning to normal, although they widened in order to use what dim light was about her to see. A sense of uncertainty crept over her as she tried to piece together what had happened. The last thing she remembered before being struck from behind, _Those humanoid turtles. What the hell was that anyways?! A trick of the Foot? A genjutsu? _

A dull throbbing began to thump away at the back of her head, reaching around to tickle her forehead rather quickly. Muffling a groan, Sara reached up and rubbed at the center of her forehead, and tried to at least sit up. The attempt was a bit difficult, but somehow she had managed to push herself up into a slouched sitting position and chanced to inspect where it was she was currently residing. It was a room, that much was obvious, but it was a massive open room that looked rather close to a living room of sorts. There was a decent amount of light spreading throughout the room, highlighting the several arcade games clustered off to the left with what looked like a mini half pipe sitting behind it. Looking around slowly, Sara took note of the fact that she was sitting on a large burlap covered couch with a pillow stuffed behind her. A kitchen was off behind the couch's position, looking somewhat discolored but other than that operational. It appeared that there was more to the large space, disappearing with the curve of the room and several hallway like entrances.

"Weird." Sara murmured, while looking off to her left where a large TV was set up before the couch alongside several recliners. _I'm...in someone's home...? _There was a cozy feel to the whole area, but there was a sense of cold to it as well as if it were open and outside the normal sense of a house. As she looked about herself, Sara started to feel an odd buzz tingling at the back of mind. A buzz that she had come to long since recognize as a sort of precognitive warning, a "spidey-sense" if you will. Was it an alarm to warn her of danger, or was it just a signal to let her know that there was something else about to happen? Not wanting to take a chance on the latter assumption, Sara slid back down on to the couch and set herself back into a sleeping position and closed her eyes, relying solely on her hearing to tell her what it was that she would not see.

Not even a moment longer than when the buzz started, voices started to drift into the open area from what seemed like every direction thanks to the surrounding brick walls. At first it sounded as though there many voices, a trick of the reverberation that the walls induced, but as Sara focused her hearing on the stronger pieces that were the root core of each voice, she counted three distinct voices that sounded male. As the young teen started to worry around the thought of being in the possession of the Foot Clan, her ears picked up a much more cheerful and friendly tone that what would have been associated with any Foot ninja. _If these guys are not apart of the Foot Clan...who are they? _Her whole body began to fidget beneath her own forced sense of worry, and as the voices drew closer the young teen froze.

"I wish you could have been there! She was awesome!"

"What I'm curious about, is how she managed to make copies of herself to fight the Foot."

"Easy guys." A pause. "Master Splinter thought it would best if there was at least someone else around when she wakes up."

"Why would Master Splinter think that...oh, right."

"Yeah, I think he wants to avoid the whole 'freaking out' thing when she wakes up and sees _us._"

Sara cracked an eye open slowly in response to the conversation. It was a rather odd conversation that had the teen wondering just who it was that had brought her out of the subway tunnel. However, her own thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat, sending the teen into a ridged frozen state with eye still open. Slowly, Sara allowed her open eye (her left eye) to slide over towards open side of the couch and then stared at one of the strangest sights she would swear to ever come upon at that moment in her life. Her breath caught within her lungs, pausing momentarily as if for some reason that if it continued it would obstruct her reasoning as to what, or rather who, stood there staring down at her with what could only be described as a rather friendly look.

Or at least as friendly of a look that human sized rat standing upright, dressed in a wrap around tunic of dark color, and holding a walking stick could provide to a now wide-eyed teen girl staring up at him. "Well, it would appear that you've finally come around. That was a rather terrible knot at the back of your head young one." There was an Asian influenced accent to the rat's voice, that fact almost slipping passed Sara as she seemed more focused on the long whiskers twitching about the long cone-shaped muzzle covered in dark brown fur. Large black almond shaped eyes held a glint from the dim lighting, but held no threatening promise to them that at least offered a small amount of comfort to Sara as her mind suggested the idea to freak out while noting at the same time that there's was a possible chance the humanoid turtles she _thought_ she had seen in the subway, were in fact...

"Ah! Master Splinter!" A rather cheery voice called out. "We got them!"

The rat nodded, both in response to the calling voice and also to the shell-shocked teen still looking up at him with ever widening eyes that continued to grow. Looking up towards the voice that approached with loud bounding steps, the anthropomorphic rat stared with what looked like a faint smile. "Michelangelo, please, your voice level must lower or else you'll give our guest a further headache." The rat pointed out while gesturing down towards the couch ridden teen with a slender hand that ended with small but sharp looking nails.

Out from over the top of the couch, the face of yet another oddity to register right up there with the talking rat. Round, green skinned, and blue-eyed, the face stared down at Sara with a wide grin as it seemed genuinely thrilled to see her awake. "Hey, you're awake!" The cheer was animate, and accented with what sounded like skater lingo. "Guys, she's up! Come look!"

Shaking his pointy eared head, the rat almost rolled his eyes as it appeared that the other had failed to heed his subtle gesture to lower his voice. Glancing down at the teen who had shrunk further down into the couch cushions, the rat offered an assuring look while noting the fact that she was now possibly crossing the line into the beginning stages of freaking out. Seeing, and sensing this, the rat looked up again and beckoned someone towards him with a wave of his claw. "Ms. O'Neil, would you please come this way? I believe our guest may need a piece of familiarity."

Before that _piece of familiarity_ could come around the couch, another green face popped up over the top of the couch beside the first, an inquiring look pressing across his face as he lifted a brow. "Wow, she is awake. I would have figured she'd be out for at least a good four hours or more." He mused while stroking his chin.

Sara's eyes refused to blink as she continued to stare wide-eyed at the anthropomorphic beings hovering over her. It was the rat who fanned the two others off in a shooing manner as yet another someone else appeared at the head of the couch arm where her head rested. Fortunately for the young teen, this face was a piece of familiarity as it was of human resemblance. A redheaded woman loomed over the teen, her sharp green eyes holding a sympathetic concern for the girl she had never once met until now. A very small amount of relief prickled along the back of her spine, but it wasn't enough as Sara finally made her first move by scrambling with the speed that a toddler would envy. In her mad dash to clear her personal space of humanoid beasts and possibly the only other human in the room, Sara's hand slipped as it hit the other couch arm just on its outside lip, and before anyone could move to help her, she disappeared over the end of the couch.

The redhead stared dumbfounded after the vanished teen, feeling a sense of confusion and understanding all at the same time. "Uh, hey, you..." She was cut off as the upper half of the girl's face appeared over the top of the couch arm, grey eyes darting between the triangle of bodies before her. Sweat beaded her forehead as stress had finally caught up with her. The red haired woman exhaled a quiet sigh as this scene seemed so distantly familiar and couldn't help but smile faintly. "I can totally understand why you're freaking out right now, but no one's going t–"

Sara's gaze flashed an angry glare that challenged the woman to even dare say her next few words. How could she not freak out? There was a rat dressed in human clothing standing on two legs reaching just below her own height by a foot, and then there were two others that were literally giant turtles! And they said not to freak out. "No kidding! How do you not expect me to freak out or worry whether or not I'm in danger?! I have a rat and what looks like two _kappas_, talking to me!" Sara snapped back, her speech hurried and almost near shouting as she pointed over at the two humanoid turtles that were now exchanging confused looks with one another.

"Ah, so you are familiar with Japanese folklore." The rat mused while stroking his thin beard dangling from the underside of his jaw. "And from what Leonardo has told me, you also seem to capable of utilizing advanced ninjutsu abilities, such as replicating multiple copies of yourself." He lifted a brow while watching the teen stare at him suspiciously from her crouched position behind the couch.

"I must have been hit harder than I thought." Sara muttered under her breath while side glancing off to the couch for a moment as she tried to piece together what may have happened in the subway tunnel.

"Yeah, that Foot Ninja caught ya pretty good at the back of your head." One of the turtles pipped up, his eyes and a bit of his upper face hidden behind a band of orange cloth knotted at the back of his head so that two tails dangled down along his neck. He seemed to be rather excited by the fact that she was awake, and didn't even seemed fazed by the fact that she was eying him with possible distrust and judgment. "It hadn't been for Leo, you would have face planted into the concrete." He chuckled at the little thought that tickled a mental picture for his own viewing.

The brow about Sara's right eye pulled up in a rather defiant manner as if shooting some smartass remark at him mentally. The other turtle standing beside the one sporting orange, folded his arms across his armor covered chest. "No kidding. But I'm confused as to why the Foot attacked you in a mass group like that." This one sported a dark purple band of cloth in the same manner as the other, and as he turned his head to look over at the rat he addressed as – Master Splinter, the twin tales twisted along the curve of his neck and shoulders. "I believe I heard them say something about a Clan, uh, Haru, I think."

"They said _Haruno_." A rather gruff voice interjected, a touch of a Brooklyn accent hanging across his words. "Geez Donny, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one." A third turtle entered into Sara's once in a lifetime 360 degree field of vision, his appearance was a bit more on the muscular side making him physically bigger than the first two turtles. And like the other two, he also sported a band across his eyes, only in red. His own gaze stared the teen down, burning amber reaching close to the color of the mask on his face, challenging her to even try some of the tricks he had been witness to.

"Just how many of you are there?!" Sara questioned while now looking about in every direction to see what else would pop out before it caught her off-guard.

The rat chuckled quietly beneath his breath while slowly moving forward with the aid of his cane. "All together, our family consists of five members." He replied while nodding towards another turtle that had stepped out of the shadows, and like the others bore a band of cloth over his face, this one colored a dark blue that framed a pair of bright golden eyes that watched her intently like the one in red. "And outside our family, we have friends like Ms. O'Neil." He then turned back part way and with a nod of his head, indicated towards the woman standing still beside the couch.

This had yet to completely assure the teen who continued to hide behind the arm of the couch. "A family?" Sara questioned while rising a bit higher above the couch arm so that her full face could be seen. Setting her fingertips against the couch arm, Sara lifted from a kneeling position on both knees, to a crouched one sitting on the balls of her feet to set herself ready for a possible attempt to run if the need arose within the next minute or so. "You'll have to forgive me for not exactly believing anything I've seen here so far. Talking turtles and a rat are not a common sight."

"You are of the Haruno Clan, are you not? Or were the Foot mistaken when they identified you?" Splinter asked while making his way to the couch and sat down, leaning forward a bit on his walking stick a raised brow. "Now, I'll have to ask you to forgive me when I say that you don't look fully Japanese." He nodded at her physical appearance.

The rat had a point, and with this, Sara agreed. She looked nothing close to Japanese, or any Asian decent. Her complexion and body structure made sure that everyone recognized her as "American", but it was the shape of her eyes that did give away a bit of where her background lay. Pulled in a gentle slant towards the outside corner of her eyes, something near what would be categorized as cat-like, they tattled on her quietly. "I'm only a third, and yes, I am of the Haruno Clan through my mother." Sara muttered back in reply while not entirely sure as to why she had done so.

The four turtles stared with confused looks between one another, while the only other _human_ present stepped forward out from behind the far couch arm. "They guys said you were fighting the Foot." She mused, carefully crafting her way into gaining further information as to who this girl was. "I have a bit of a good grasp on the abilities that the ninja from the Foot Clan posses. So it's hard to imagine one teenager going up against a rather large group and only coming away with a knock to the back of her head."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Sara grumbled back while glancing over at the four turtles who now stared intently at her, waiting to hear a further answer. "What?!" She snapped out of annoyance to the fact that she was set under a spotlight. "I think it's only fair you explain **you** before I start saying anything about myself! I'm not going to just open up so quickly, especially since you seem to have an intimate knowledge of the Foot as well."

The rat nodded in understanding to this, and then with a claw, gestured towards the open armchair sitting across from the couch. "If you would like to take a much more comfortable seat, I will explain to you our origins in the hope of gaining a small amount of your trust." He replied while awaiting for her final response, knowing it would take her a moment to consider this the rat looked back over his shoulder as gesture for the turtles to make themselves comfortable as well (and hopefully aid in the disposal of a rather intimidating presence that two of them were providing at the moment).

Hesitantly, Sara started to slowly stand to her feet and edge her way towards the armchair that looked welcoming, but at the same time offered a musty ancient look. Keeping her gaze on those who seemed to have surrounded her, or at least from her point of view. Sitting down in the armchair, making sure to stay seated on the edge of the seat as a safety precaution, Sara stared across at the rat that had been called Master Splinter a few times already.

An thus, Splinter's tale began, "Our story starts years ago, beginning with my life in Japan. I was once a pet of my Master, Hamato Yoshi. My Master was a great ninja, and when he would practice, I would watch him from my cage and mimic his movements. Like any great master, he had a rival. A man named Oroku Saki. Not only was Oroku Saki a rival in the ninja arts, but also in love as he and my master both shared common interest in a woman by the name of Tang Shen." Splinter watched the teen girl as he spoke, noting the look of interest now creeping over her expression. "However, Tang Shen fell in love with my Master. This angered Saki very much, to the point of blind rage. Tang Shen persuaded my Master to flee Japan, to leave behind a useless fight that would not solve or prove anything. Agreeing, my Master and his new wife left and came here to America, and made a home here in New York. Saki vowed vengeance no matter what and spent years tracking us down. The day finally came when Oroku Saki and my Master finally came face to face. Coming home one night, my Master Yoshi found his beloved wife dead on the ground."

A flicker in Sara's gaze caused Splinter to take special attention now with her eyes as something seemed to stir behind them. It was as if something else was now staring back through her, something that had come to gain interest in the tale being told. While there was sympathy and curiosity in Sara's gaze, there was also a sense of hunger and underlying malice that Splinter could not place.

"Oroku Saki had found them. My Master fought with Oroku Saki, knocking into my cage and dropping it to the ground. Free from my cage I leaped for Oroku Saki, and dug my claws and teeth into his face in an attempt to protect my Master. However, my attempts were to no avail. My Master was slain, and I lost my right ear that night. With no home or family, I was left to wander the sewers of New York, scrounging for food. One day, I happened upon a strange glowing canister that was broken and spilling liquid from within. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there were four baby turtles crawling about in the liquid. Rounding them up into a coffee can I watched over them that night, afraid that they may suffer illness from what they had been exposed to. The next morning I awoke to find that the baby turtles had doubled in size, and that I myself had grown as well. While the baby turtles roamed about the sewer, I noticed something peculiar, one of them was beginning to talk. Over the next few days the turtles grew even more, both physically and mentally, as did I."

Looking between Splinter and the turtles that stood behind him in a near uniform line, Sara tried to wrap her mind about this whole story. She had heard theories about chemical waste or radioactive material mutating all forms of life, but the idea that something like that could be true with its results standing before her, was a bit far fetched to say the least. Four turtles mutated, by god only knows what, to anthropomorphic appearance along with an aged rat... "Ooookay." Sara murmured under breath while scratching at the back of her head, careful to avoid the spot that was still sore from being knocked...or at least it should have still been sore. Sara only had enough time to raise a curious brow before her train of thought was interrupted by Splinter.

"I would like to introduce to you, my sons. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Named after the great Renaissance artists, I have trained in the ways of the ninja, bestowing upon them all that I had learned from my Master Yoshi." Splinter further explained, and thus also concluded his tale. "You may call me Splinter." He stated while setting a hand to his chest and then gestured towards the red haired woman who had taken a seat on the couch arm. "And this, is April O'Neil."

Sara continued to stare quietly at them all, a slightly suspicious look still pulling across her face, but there was now a small air acceptance coming from her. "Nice to meet you." She returned, while sitting in a slightly more relaxed position on the edge of the chair. "I'm...I'm Sara Reeve." Sara introduced herself, if not a bit begrudgingly as she had come to a somewhat conclusion to the fact that this group had absolutely nothing (maybe) to do with the Foot Clan. "I just moved here the other day with my family from Colorado."

The turtle named Michelangelo, the youngest out of the four, perked up in response and somehow managed to clear the space between him and her in half the time frame of what it took to blink. Crouching at her right hand and clutching excitedly to the arm of the chair, he stared at her with big blue eyes. "How old are you? What's your favorite food? Do you like video games?" He asked in rapid fire succession, leaving hardly any room for her to answer each of his questions while she stared at him with wide eyes that expressed a rather keen amount of shock at how quickly he had moved and now talked.

The one named Donatello groaned while smacking himself in the forehead, his younger brother's over excitement slightly embarrassing him at the moment. "Great first impression there Mikey." He muttered beneath his breath.

Raphael shook his head with a grunt and stared at Sara with an ever present judgmental look on his face. "So what would the Foot want with you anyways?" He asked, or rather demanded, rather roughly.

Sara nearly shot the red banned turtle a glare in response to his tone towards her, but instead opted to merely allow her brow to twitch with annoyance. "How should I know?!"

"Well they attacked you didn't they? And they seemed to know something of your background." Raphael pointed out bluntly, his voice level starting to rise as he slowly found Sara to be rather annoying for one reason or another. "So apparently you should know something!"

_This one...is irritating. _Sara chewed angrily on her thoughts as her jaw clenched beneath her lips. "I don't know why they jumped me in the subway."

"Raph, enough." Leonardo cut his brother off as he opened his mouth to retort with possibly a shout that for some reason tipped off the older out of the brothers to the possibility of screaming match erupting between Raphael and the girl named Sara. "Master Splinter, do you know anything about the Haruno Clan that may cause the Foot to attack her?" Leonardo looked down at Splinter, who seemed to be mulling over several thoughts of his own.

Splinter studied Sara for a moment, the glint he had seen in her eyes was a bit of a curiosity, and at the same time it bothered him. _There's something else looking through her eyes, watching and listening. The Haruno Clan. I remember that Master Yoshi had made mention of the Haruno Clan often, and even went out on missions with them if I'm not mistaken. There was something else...something about the clan that was considered 'dark'. They were guardians of something, but what, I can never remember. _"If Sara-san does not know why the Foot attacked her, then she does not know. We are all in the dark on what the Foot maybe scheming in the absence of their leader." Splinter assured his sons, while also giving Sara a reassuring look. "Sara-san, you do seem to know at least who the Foot are and what they are capable of. Please, think of us as allies against the Foot. My sons and I are on your side, willing to aid you when you need it."

Sara stared at the anthropomorphic rat with a blank studying look, her head tilted to the left as she seemed to be debating before her eyes slid over to April O'Neil, as if asking whether or not she should put her trust in this 'family'. Although this was quite possibly the weirdest thing to witness and even believe, Sara was convicted by her own thoughts that no matter how odd it was to be surrounded by humanoid animals, it wasn't as odd as some of the things that had happened to her (or some things about her). A defeated smile suddenly cracked across her face, causing Michelangelo to grow even more excited at her side. "Something tells me that I'm really going to need it."


	6. Chapter 6

******Chapter Six**  
After Worlds Collide

* * *

_"Curiouser and curiouser."_ - **Alice, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Chapter 2**

* * *

"The company offered my dad a promotion, and taking it meant that he would have to relocate to a new office here in New York. We moved into the new apartment the other day." Sara sat on the left hand side of the dinner table, several slices of pizza sat before her on a plate decorated with pepperoni and olives. She seemed to be at a relative ease now with the new found companions she had been introduced to, as was present in the fact that she now shared dinner with them in their home beneath the streets of Manhattan.

Michelangelo, who had seated himself on Sara's right, had yet to fully devour his own parts of the pizza as he was engrossed with watching and listening to the teen girl sitting with him and his family. Thus far, they had come to learn a bit more about Sara as she slowly opened up after hearing their own tale. She was a third Japanese from her mom's side of the family, came from a rather proud shinobi clan called the Haruno, had lived in Kyoto until she was thirteen, moved state side to Colorado, was currently sixteen-years-old (much to the apparent delight of Michelangelo and Donatello), a Sophomore in high school, and was rather proficient in the use of many shinobi arts including the ability to mold chakra to utilize ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques that her grandfather had taught her. And it seemed more than obvious that youngest of the four brothers was more than just captured by her, as he continued to stare with complete and utter interest. That and he had yet to actually inhale his dinner for once.

"Did you leave behind any friends?" Donatello asked, curious to know if there was some sort of sentimental value left behind on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. However, his question seemed to have caught Sara off-guard, leaving the teen to stare across at him with her mouth looking as though it had something to say, but the voice box decided to leave it hanging. _Oh crap! Maybe I shouldn't have asked that question so soon! _"Uh, I mean, um, you don't have to..." Donatello stammered out and lost whatever else he had to say to recant what he had said.

Closing her mouth, and forcing herself to smile, Sara tried to visibly assure Donatello that he didn't need to apologize. "No, it's fine. I had some friends back home, but I found out that most of them weren't exactly solid in their friendship as I had thought they were." The forced smile clung to the corners of her mouth, but there was no hiding the actual sense of defeat that pulled at the rest of her expression.

Master Splinter picked up on a rather dreary sense of near self-loathing that seemed rather strange coming from someone of Sara's age. However, the boys (meaning Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo, since Raphael had decided to be otherwise put off by Sara's presence and chose to rather stand off against the kitchen wall) seemed to be more concerned with the fact that Sara apparently didn't have very many friends if any at all now. Even April showed a bit of sympathy towards Sara's statement, and offered her the best comforting, and friendly, smile that she could at the moment from her place at the end of the table.

"I'm sure your friends who stayed true to you, miss you. Right?" April pointed out, hoping at the same time that she hadn't just put her foot in her mouth with that. Especially since Sara didn't exactly identify to the fact that she had any friends left back in Colorado.

"I doubt it." Sara mumbled back in reply as she lifted a slice of pizza off the plate, missing the rather bummed out look on April's face. _I don't have any friends left back home. They all freaked out, and two of them even called me a 'monster' before running away. None of them even tried to understand._ Sara bit down into the pizza, her gaze and whole demeanor having plummeted into a state of near depression now.

Michelangelo shot his brother a rather unholy look as he placed some sort of blame on him specifically for starting the rather slowly greying state that Sara was slipping forward into. After receiving an equally stern look from Donatello in response, Michelangelo quickly devised a conversation curb in his head, or at least a good question to take Sara's attention away from something depressing. "So that thing you did in the subway, with the whole making more yourself trick, what was that?" There was both a panicked sense of misdirection in his tone, while at the same time he was rather curious to know the answer.

Looking up at the turtle to at her side, Sara lifted a brow while the piece of pizza dangled from her mouth. "Trick?" She asked through a mouth full of food. Yanking the bigger piece that was left outside her mouth, Sara swallowed quickly before she could begin explaining. "Oh, you mean the dopplegangers I used to fight the Foot. It's known as _bunshin_, and is one of the more basic ninjutsu techniques that all blood related members of the Haruno Clan are taught, since we're the only ones who posses the ability to mold our chakra. The technique I used is a much more advanced level of that basic technique; _kage bunshin_, flesh and blood dopplegangers versus just an illusion." Almost immediately her whole demeanor had changed for the better, a real smile pulling at the right corner of her mouth.

_Very good Michelangelo._ Splinter nodded as he listened to Sara explain her shinobi methods, while at the same time commending his youngest son quietly. "A very advanced skill indeed. Your grandfather is a very good teacher." He mused.

"The Foot were probably not expecting a teenager to fight back." April grinned as she could only image what that fight may have looked like.

"Maybe not, considering the fact that there were so many of them in the first place. They obviously had some type of forewarning." Leonardo pointed out, his gaze eying Sara a bit even as he faced April.

Sara's brow furrowed as she raised a brow, her gaze lifting upward as thought back to the confrontation in the subway. "Yeah, you're right."

"But what would the Foot have against someone from the Haruno Clan?" Donatello wondered aloud, knowing that either Sara or Splinter would answer that question. "And how would they know Sara was apart of that clan as well? It doesn't make sense." To this, the others nodded, excluding Raphael who more less grunted his agreement as he had been suggesting this from the beginning.

Splinter nodded to this, his gaze flickering over to Sara as even he was somewhat in the dark on either of these questions. The teen rubbed the back of her neck with a somewhat of an unsure look on her own face at the moment. But she did seem to know something, "From what I know, the Foot Clan and the Haruno Clan are enemies since way back before the Meiji Era. As to why, I'm not quite sure on, although I do believe it's because the Foot practice black magic." Sara explained to the extent of her knowledge concerning the two ninja clans. "But like I said earlier, I have no idea how they would know I'm apart of the Haruno Clan. I don't wear the symbol, or anything like that." She further added before anyone could push the other question any further.

"Hmm, you said that your family moved over from Japan almost three years ago..." Splinter trailed off in mid thought as he pondered a moment longer before voicing his theory. "It could be very much a possibility that the Foot were aware of your family's move." He mused quietly. "Did they say anything else to you in the subway?"

Sara shrugged. "I think they said something about someone wanting to meet me." Any bits of conversation that may have occurred between her and the Foot seemed a bit fuzzy at best, a result perhaps from being struck in the back of the head. However, Sara had consciously left out the small bit where the lead ninja had specifically called her _'the container'_. And while the rest of the table seemed more concerned with what the Foot wanted specifically with her, Sara grabbed the final piece of pizza on her plate and chomped down about halfway up.

Twenty minutes later, and Sara was winding her way through the maze of that was the underground sewers of Manhattan with four turtles and one woman leading the way. There was something rather..._disturbing_, about wandering the underground, especially within sewer systems that Sara couldn't quite put her finger on. Michelangelo and Donatello were the only two chatter boxes out of the four brothers as they continued to ask Sara questions and answering some of the ones that she asked them, while Leonardo and April took the main lead. This left Raphael at the end, the far end, of the group with a rather unhappy scowl etched heavily across his face and arms jammed over his chest.

"Okay, so, your family comes straight out of Japan on your mom's side. And on your dad's side, it's all from over here state side." Donatello recited what Sara had outlined concerning her ethnic heritage, and looked now for her approval. A nod from Sara was all he needed to crack a rather broad smile. "So what part of Kyoto is your family from?" The curious nature of Donatello continued to further prod for more information concerning the girl's background.

"The clan family compound is in the Fushimi-ku Ward, and sits about two miles from the Fushimi Inari Taisha." Sara replied while picking her way over the small threaded cluster of pipes feeding down the brick wall and into the waterway that the catwalk stood above level by a good two feet. Glancing over, Sara caught sight of the rather confused looks on both Michelangelo and Donatello, and chuckled. "The Fushimi Inari Taisha is a shinto jinja, a shrine dedicated to a _kami_deity, in which case is the deity Inari. The Haruno Clan was said to have been entrusted with the task of guarding many great secrets of Inari, as the deity had handed them down personally to us. Many of the secrets were stored in the shrine itself, but there were two closely guarded ones kept hidden in our family compound."

April looked back over her shoulder after hearing Sara's small story. "Amazing. I had heard about a ninja clan dedicated to the Inari Taisha when I took a trip through Japan a few years back. Never heard the name of the clan though, even after visiting the shrine."

"I suppose you wouldn't. A lot of those who are attendants at the shrine, were taught to recognize the Haruno Clan as just history and that there are a few descendants somewhere. Other than that, no one gives recognition to the clan compound or that we're not just a few." Sara replied. "I actually used to live in the family compound before we moved over state side."

Michelangelo stared at her with a rather wide-eyed look of awe. She sounded so ninja that he couldn't help but stare. Born in Japan and raised in a clan compound that survived for centuries near a deity shrine while all the while being trained by her grandfather in the shinobi arts...it was just, _Too awesome! She's just like us, aside from the whole mutating thing of course, but still! _"Hey, Sara! Do you have any other ninjutsu arts? Can you breathe fire or walk on water?"

Raphael scoffed rather loudly from behind the group. "She's not a dragon or an insect Mikey." _Besides, what's the point in getting to know her anyways?! She's apparently that not that great at keeping friends anyways!_ Raphael's jaw clenched beneath his lips as he bit back anything else that would possibly slip out and have Leonardo riding his case about being polite to their 'guest'. The last thing he wanted right now, was to deal with one of his brother's lectures. However, as he mulled over whatever else he wanted to say, his concentration was broken as the sound of his younger brothers startled cries broke out. Glancing between them, he noted that there was someone missing and that Michelangelo and Donatello were looking off over at the sewer waterway itself.

Somehow, Raphael managed to keep his choked expression from being heard and seen as shock coursed through him. As if it were nothing at all, Sara was standing atop the surface of the running sewer waters as if she were standing on solid ground. _Yeah well, whatever! It's not __that__impressive. It's not like she can breathe fire though! _Raphael grumbled something under his breath while looking off elsewhere to show that he was unimpressed if anyone happened to look his way.

"Haha! I knew it!" Michelangelo stated excitedly while pointing at Sara and looking at his brother Donatello in a rapid fire manner to see his own reaction. "So does this mean you can breathe fire too then?!"

April let out a rather good hearted laugh as Michelangelo's reaction was rather priceless, especially since Sara seem to further cater to his excitement by hopping around on the water's surface to show that it wasn't all an illusion or trick of the eye. _I guess she is the real thing after all. It just further raises questions as to why the Foot ambushed her. Sara's no older than the boys, but she gave those Foot ninja a pretty rough beating on her own. _Watching Sara, April was suddenly reminded of the rather defeated look on her face when they had made mention of any friends back in Colorado. She had never seen anything like that on even an adult who had been out in the "real world" for a good some odd years and seen the worst downs it had to offer. However, April's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she heard Leonardo chuckle beneath his breath.

"I think Mikey has a new friend." Leonardo thought aloud, his gaze trained on his younger brother and the teen girl goofing around out on the surface of the sewer water. The older of the four brothers smirked slightly as even he was impressed by the fact that Sara could even stand out on top of moving water and not become drenched in the filth of the city. "Alright, come on guys." Leo called out to them. "Splinter asked us to take Sara home."

"Yeah, but he didn't say how quickly." Michelangelo pointed out, while at the same time he contemplated whether or not he could try walking on water as well.

Somehow, Raphael had had enough, annoyed that his brothers seemed to take to Sara so quickly without looking further into way the Foot was after her. "Let's just go already! I don't be wandering around here so that way you can be entertained!" He growled out at his young brother, catching everyone a bit off-guard with his statement. Noticing the looks he was receiving from his brothers and April, Raphael didn't even dare look over at Sara.

Even though it wasn't exactly the kind of motivation that Leonardo had been looking for, he exhaled a somewhat disgruntled or rather annoyed sigh while eying Raphael from where he stood. "Sara, where did you say your apartment was?"

Stepping back on to the cement catwalk, Sara glanced over at Leonardo. "It's about a block from the _DeFranco Brothers Pizzeria_." A sheepish look crossed her face as Sara realized that she was unable to recall the exact name of the street her parents apartment sat on. "I can't really remember the name of the street we live on. I just know how to retrace my steps rather well." She chuckled in an embarrassed manner as she knew that this had to only label her as a possible airhead right now.

"Well at least we know which direction to head in now." Donatello pointed out. "Around that area, the only streets that I can recall are Ninth, Willow, and M. Do any of them sound familiar?" He asked while looking over at the girl that had come to stand somewhat between himself and Michelangelo.

"Yeah, we're on Willow." Sara replied with the same sheepish look on her face as the sound of the street name had finally clicked.

The group continued through the sewer tunnels, and within only a span of twenty minutes or so, they were soon staring up at the manhole cover that led out to Willow Street and place Sara right near her home. April went up the ladder first, followed by Sara with Leonardo and Michelangelo following up behind them. With experience in lifting a manhole cover up off its set rim, April peered out from the small gap that was before her now while holding the heavy piece of circular metal up with the flattened palm of her hand. Surveying the street that had now darkened and was illuminated by flickering street lamps, she made sure that there was no one in sight to witness two girls hoping up out of a sewer drain.

With no one out on the street, April called down the okay and then proceeded to push the manhole cover aside to climb up out on to the street. Sara appeared next, standing up beside April while wiping her hands off on her jeans to rid them of the flacked off rusted bits of the metal ladder. Even though it was near evening, the turtles remained hidden within the sewer drain, not wanting to chance being spotted by anyone happening to pass by. However, Leonardo hovered just near the mouth of the drain, Michelangelo pushing his way up beside him even though the ladder's size wasn't exactly accommodating for two bodies side by side.

April had already assured the turtles that she would walk Sara all the way to her apartment door, but Michelangelo seemed a bit concerned with something else. "You'll come back and hang out with us, right?" Michelangelo had a rather apparent look of worry on his face as he stared up at Sara specifically.

Sara offered him the first actual genuine smile since their first interaction. "Yeah. I mean you guys helped me out back there in the subway, which I seem to have yet to thank you for...now that I thank about it." Sara scratched the back of her head as she realized this little bit she seemed to have overlooked. Crouching down before the tunnel entrance, Sara folded her arms over the top of her knees, her head tilting to the right a bit as she met Michelangelo's gaze. "My parents will be out again all day tomorrow, I come back then." She offered.

Michelangelo looked over to Leonardo with a massive smile on his face. The older brother gave a small laugh behind his lips in response to the fact that Michelangelo seemed to be asking permission from him or some sort of approval. Looking back up to Sara, Leonardo nodded. "Does this street get pretty busy during the day?"

"Uh, well, it wasn't today. But it's the first time I've actually been out and about." Sara replied. "Should I just come here to meet with you guys? Or is there somewhere else?"

Here, April interjected an idea. "There's that manhole near my place that you guys use all the time without being seen. How about I come by and pick you up tomorrow? I have to work, but at least I could show you where its at so that way you can get there on your own later on." April suggested, while winking down at Mikey and Leo to assure them that she would help out.

"Yeah, yeah! Let's do that!" Michelangelo shouted, only to be quickly hushed by Leonardo who smacked him in the back of the head. Grinning sheepishly, Michelangelo again confirmed his agreement to the idea in a more quieter manner. "We can meet you there."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven  
Alright! I'm An Office Assistant!**

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"_Alright! I'm a Delivery Boy!"_ - **Fry,**_**Futurma: Episode 1 – Space Pilot 3000**_

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The display case was massive. Constructed entirely out of a thick crystal clear glass, the display case that held various pieces from what appeared to out of every corner of the globe from any thought of period, started about twelve feet from the door and then followed the curving roll of the circular office for about ¾ of the way before ending. The office itself had to be around three times the size of an average living room in a condo with granite colored marble floors inlaid with gold veins here and there for that extra pop of expense. Pillars of a rose and cream colored marble lifted the high vaulted ceilings and were set six feet inward from the oak panel walls.

The whole place reeked of expense, big time money that only guys like this Yoshitsune Mamoru had to spend on more refined presentation of a personal office. While it showed off the accumulated wealth of the head curator of the soon to be opening _Museum of Asian History_, it all showed off his beloved attention to the history of the world outside the noise and chaos of New York. And for that, Sara held a small amount of respect for the older gentleman as she browsed her way along the glass display, reading the place cards and placards to each individual item set out on the wooden shelves. While she stared at these priceless pieces of history, Sara kept her hearing tuned in on the conversation that April was having with Mr. Yoshitsune himself.

There were a few times in which Sara's brow furrowed in a scrunch, but other than that she did seem a bit disinterested with the ground laying for April's new partnership with the head curator. Mr. Yoshitsune had contacted April a few days ago looking to enlist her help in finding a few last minute artifacts he had a bit of trouble coming by and had been hoping to have in the museum before its grand opening, which was only an entire three months away still.

And the reason Sara was there? It just so happened that Sara had become April's new assistant after that first night she met the four turtle brothers, their father (who was also their sensei), and April herself. If it hadn't been for April explaining to her parents that she wanted to hire Sara as a sort office assistant to the business that she ran with her partner and boyfriend Casey Jones, it would have been rather difficult for the teen to explain her reasons for coming home at such a late hour and looking as though she had been tousled about. Luckily enough, her parents took the explanation and were even excited to the fact that Sara now had a part time job in which she could exercise her rather expansive knowledge of Japanese folklore and ancient history.

So thusly, the partial reason as to why Sara had been dragged down to the still being put together _Museum of Asian History_. It was a near monolithic structure with three stories and the same area measurement as the White House. The Head Curator's office was on the third floor and tucked off into the east wing.

While there was a bright side to being woken up at six in the morning and hauled down to what seemed like that farthest end of the city from her parent's apartment, Sara was unwilling to admit to this so called "bright side". April argued, well pointed out excitedly to be more specific, that Sara and herself would one of the first of the public to see the inside of the new museum and catch a sneak peak at what was being setup.

"_Yeah, I'm absolutely riveted. Forgive my lack of leaping about with glee, bad back you know."_

"_Good to know your sarcasm doesn't suffer like your attitude in the morning. By the way, I know you just quoted Lion King, so take any credit for it."_

By the time seven thirty rolled around and they were actually inside the museum, Sara finally had to admit to the bright side that April had been pushing for. April – one, Sara – zero.

"Not a problem Mr. Yoshitsune." April smiled while nodding at the same time. "I have a few sources well-versed in Japanese folklore and ancient artifacts who will be able to help me with this project."

Yoshitsune Mamoru, a man of Asian decent who more than likely was gracing the age of fifty or so with salt 'n peppered black hair that he wore slicked back, adjusted the horn rimmed glasses that sat perched upon his nose while chuckling behind closed lips. "Well then, you're a better start than I was." he smiled. "And your young friend there," Nodding over at the teen who was still rather fascinated with his displays, he lifted his brows in a bit of question. "Is she one of your sources?"

April glanced over at where Sara was standing, the back of the teen was turned to them at the moment with just a glimpse of her reflection in the glass being caught for a moment. She nodded in answer to the question. "Sara, could you come here a sec?" April called out.

Glancing back over her shoulder briefly, Sara turned away from the display and crossed what seemed like one heck of an expanse between her and the two adults. Standing beside April, Sara gave Mr. Yoshitsune a small smile. She had already been introduced and he the same, so there seemed no real need for further formality in that area.

"Sara's a rather decent expert in Japanese folklore, Mr. Yoshitsune. She'll be helping me locate the pieces you've been looking for." April grinned while setting a hand on Sara's shoulder.

He nodded with a bit of an amused look on his face. "I see, so not only are you an office assistant, but you're also a bit of a historian. A young lady of your age with a range of talents is a very rare thing nowadays."

_Why do I feel a bit resentful of that? It's like he almost expected me to be chewing on a wad of gum and twisting my hair about my fingers...you know what, that kind of pisses me off._ Sara offered out a shallow chuckle as she tried to hold back on the sarcasm she was more than willing to let fly at this point.

"Well, then, Mr. Yoshitsune we'll be on our way. It was pleasure meeting with you, and I'll make sure to stay in touch with updates on our progress." April extended a hand out to the older gentleman, who accepted and shook hands with his new business partner.

"Excellent, excellent. It was also a pleasure to meet both of you ladies. Take care now." He bowed to them both, customary of course out of tradition and habit no doubt.

Returning the bow, both April and Sara guided themselves out the door and headed for the elevators. It was only until they got to the elevators and hit the button on the panel, that April turned to Sara with a lifted look on her face. April had been expecting at least a little bit of excitement on Sara's part, and wondered now what kept the teens' mouth shut instead.

"What?" Sara glanced up at April from the corner of her eye.

April shook her head. "Nothing. It's just that you seem a bit quiet, that's all."

Silence passed between them as they continued to wait for the elevators. Sara broke the silence again, her left brow pulling up in a bit of questioning manner. "What did he ask you to look for anyways?"

"He said they're scrolls dating back to the Heian period." April stared up at the lighted box holding the plastic casing that was hopefully just a few second from lighting up in declaration the elevator's arrival. "_The Yamato Scrolls_."

The very words sent a deathly chill straight down Sara's spine like a bolt of lightning, her eyes even went wide with a bit of constricted look to them as if she knew something April didn't. Looking away from her quickly, Sara stared down at the ground, hoping her rather sudden expression hadn't been noticed by the redhead beside her. "Great."

A chime-like alarm pinged from in front of them, the case above their heads lighting with a soft peachy glow as the brass shine doors slid open. The ride down to the main floor was almost as quiet as it had been with them standing in the hall outside Mr. Yoshitsune's office, which April noted as a bit odd. Once they stepped outside the museum itself and began the easy climb down what seemed like an unnecessary amount of stairs, April decided to pop a question that was currently bugging her.

"Sara, what's the matter?"

"What are you talking about?" The teen almost seemed to refuse meeting April's gaze as she clambered down the steps beside her.

April exhaled a bit of a frustrated sigh before continuing on and taking on Sara's ring-around the question "_game_". "I'm talking about your inability to actually look at me when I'm talking, and the lack of any and almost all communication." She pointed out with a slight frown feathering her lips. "What's wrong?"

Sara paused in the middle of the slope placed stairs leading up to and down from the museum. She seemed to be contemplating something for a minute before turning to face April, who happened to be a few stairs up behind her. "I know exactly where _The Yamato Scrolls _are."

"Well that's great." April's frown quickly dissolved into a broad smile.

"No, April, it's not." It was Sara's turn to frown now. "Those scrolls are locked up inside the _Fushimi Inari-taisha_. No one is allowed to touch or read them, let alone take them out of the chest they're locked away in. They're not some misplaced artifact that needs to be reclaimed and shared with the rest of the world." Sara explained, her brow furrowing deeper as she spoke. "Those scrolls were locked up for a reason. And I'm pretty sure that Yoshitsune knows exactly why they were locked away in the first place."

April's brows knitted together as she slowly becoming a bit confused by all this. "Why do you say that?"

Sara looked back towards the museum, her eyes literally zeroing in on the window she knew looked in on the curator's office. "Because his ancestor was the reason those scrolls were locked up in the first place."

"You're absolutely certain that this Yoshitsune Mamoru is linked to Minamoto no Yoshitsune." Splinter stroked the long train of white hair that dangled from the top of his chin. The claws at the end of his fingers pieced through his beard, separating tangles wherever they were to be found.

Sara nodded with a rather unhappy look on her face. "I'm dead certain." She sat back in her seat on the worn couch she had come to frequent quite a bit over the passed three weeks since her initial meeting with the family of anthropomorphic ninja after a tried ambush by the Foot Clan. "It would be one hell of a weird coincidence if his family name happened to be the same as the given name of a shogun name Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and that he happens to have an interest in _The Yamato Scrolls_."

"What exactly are these _Yamato Scrolls_ anyways?" Donatello spoke up from his spot near the computer terminal he rarely seemed to leave during the day, unless of course Sara happened to come down for a visit. But even then, he somehow managed to wind right back up in front of it fiddling with whatever new gadget he was looking to improve on or invent. The purple masked turtle had a bit of a puzzled look on his face.

Splinter glanced from his son to Sara and beckoned for her to take the lead, but at the same time he eyed her with a look she had come to know as one that reprimanded her for the slip of heavier language than he thought was necessary for her to be using as a young lady. A small sheepish grin pulled at the corner of Sara's mouth as she noted his look.

"Initially they're supposed to be a legend that started when the Minamoto and Taira samurai clans were fighting one another in the Genpei war. It was said that _The Yamato Scrolls_ were first given to the seventh son of Emperor Saga by a _tengu_ named Sojobo who struck a deal with the Emperor's son. _The Yamato Scrolls_ held inked drawing of various _yokai_, and when the one in possession of the scrolls called upon them, they would spring to life from the parchment and slay the enemies of their caller." Sara glanced over at Splinter who nodded for her to continue. "The legend of the scrolls picked up during the Genpei war. Minamoto no Yoshitsune heard about the scrolls handed down to the ancestor of his clan and sought them to win the war for his clan. It's said that Sojobo appeared before Yoshitsune at the foot of Mount Kurama and struck up a deal with him as he had done before with Emperor Saga's son. The scrolls were handed over to Yoshitsune and then rest is considered myth and fairytale after that."

Michelangelo exchanged a look with Donatello from across the room as the youngest of the turtle brothers was sitting in a chair he had pulled up from the dinner table and sat in it backwards. Looking back to Sara, a throughly confused look on his face, Michelangelo tilted his head to the side. "So, basically these scrolls are supposed to be like a portal or something for evil monsters?" He understood what _yokai_and _tengu_ were; Splinter had told him and his brothers stories when they were little. But what he didn't understand was why some museum curator wanted supposedly "monster scrolls" that were locked up in the shrine guarded by a shinobi clan.

Both Sara and Splinter nodded to this, which only confused Michelangelo and Donatello even more.

It was Leonardo who spoke up next with a rather obvious point to be made. "How hard is that to believe guys? I mean, we saw a portal to another dimension open up and power out monsters that we pushed back in with four immortal generals made out of stone."

Sara blinked a few times as she stared at the blue masked turtle sitting off to her right further down the couch, her own sense of confusion now coming into play. "What was that?"

"Oh yeah! We never told you about that did we?" Michelangelo grinned while rocking forward in his chair a bit. "So, last year, we totally saved the world from being overrun by monster coming out of like this evil Haley's comet thing that opened up this swirling vortex of doom."

Again, Sara blinked stupidly as she tried to now wrap her mind around something that sounded rather bizarre to _her_. "You did what to save the what now?" Her head tilted in a manner that seemed to mimic the movement of a owl, her brows knitting together as she tried to process Mikey's rather hurried cover of something that had happened the year before.

While Mikey attempted to once more explain the story to Sara, with Donatello's help now, Raphael remained rooted to his spot off away from the rest of the group. Arms jammed over his chest and his usual brooding scowl creased out across his face beneath the scarlet band that framed out his burning amber gaze. He was barely even amused or even showed any sign of interest in what was going on, at least his outward appearance suggested that. Still, as any teenager, Raphael was curious to know if this whole story of Japanese folklore and monsters was real.

There was a sudden soft buzzing sound that interrupted the conversations going on at the moment, and everyone went quiet, listening intently for whatever that sound was and trying to pin point its location. April's face alighted as she realized it was her cellphone that was buzzing away, buried inside her purse. Reaching down for the large brown bag she had set beside her seat, April fished out the silver flip-phone and smiled a bit as she read the LCD screen. Underneath the city streets, any call was going to be nothing but silent noise that never reached the receiving line being dialed up. Thus in April's case, as it happened to be her boyfriend Casey Jones calling, it was more a page than anything else.

"I'll have to catch the rest of the story later tonight, Sara." April announced while shoving her phone back in her purse before getting up and heading over to the pay phone mounted on the wall just off around the outside corner of the open dinning room.

Bobbing her head in a quick dip, her usual response when she decided not to verbally reply back, Sara watched April a moment before looking back to her turtle friends. "So anyways, what are you guys doing today?" She asked while scratching at the back of her head and messing up the gathered hair she had bound in a ponytail when she got up that morning.

Michelangelo shot up from his seat and pointed off towards the arcade game stalls off to Sara's far left. "I'm totally going to beat your score today!" He announced.

"Right." Donatello rolled his eyes and looked over to suggest something else to Sara, but found that she had suddenly disappeared from her seat on the couch and had relocated to the identified arcade game that Mikey was already gearing up on. "Is that all you guys think about?" He grumbled under his breath. But even as he grumbled, Donatello was already getting up out of his seat to join his brother and their friend.

"Whatever." Raphael huffed while pushing off his lean-to spot against the wall and headed off for the kitchen.

"Get the coin, Mikey! Get the coin!" Donny shouted while pointing at the said item on the screen from over his brother's shoulder. "That coin, right there! Mikey!"

"Back off Don, I see it!" Mikey snapped while trying to shoo his brother away without having to take his concentration off the game.

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**Author Note:** Wow, that was a pretty short chapter (scratches head). Well I didn't want to ruin the purpose of the chapter, which is to both inform and move the story forward. Plenty of questions have probably arisen withing you all your little minds, and I assure you that eventually they will all be answered in due time

Sorry for taking so long on the update! I had to watch TMNT a few times to recharge my turtle batteries!


	8. Chapter 8

**Author Note:** Since I am not even fluent in Japanese (I only know a handful of words and phrases to get by), I will be using the old technique of ' ' to show when characters are speaking in Japanese. I'm sorry that I cannot provide actually conversation pieces in Japanese, but I think this will work quite nicely so that way I don't have to include a translation piece at the end of the chapter later on. If anyone wants to translate the conversation pieces and send them to me, by all means please feel free to do so!

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**Chapter Eight  
Arrancar**

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"_We fear that which we cannot see." _**- Manga tagline, **_**Bleach**_

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Casey Jones sat staring at the computer screen before him with images of ancient samurai helmets and sporadic pieces of text notes that outlined the brief history and detail of the artifacts. He seemed to be rather focused on the web page, eyes glancing over the images and words a few times before he seemed to pause, sit back in his chair, inhale a breath through his nose, exhale and turn to the teen girl sitting at his immediate right with a rather large bowl of ramen in her hands that of which half had disappeared in a manner of minutes.

"I don't get it." His tone of voice was rather placid, as was the look he bore while staring at the girl who had suddenly become apart of the small strange crowd he himself was involved with. "And secondly, how can you eat so much of that stuff and not get sick?" Casey eyed the crimped noodles swimming about in a pool of dark brown broth that smelled like it could have been some sort of beef stock. He had practically lived off that stuff for a better part of his younger years, and now he almost detested the very sight of the_"soup"_.

Slurping up the trail of noodles that she had hooked with a set of wooden chopsticks she had fished out from a drawer in the kitchen, Sara lifted a brow as she stared at the computer screen. "This is that helmet I was telling you about. The one in Yoshitsune-san's office." Sara pointed at the image of a rather diabolic looking helmet made of leather and iron, the half-face mask was a bright orange red and grinned horribly with jutting ivory teeth. "It belonged to Minamoto no Yoshitsune. He was general of the Minamoto clan during the late Heian Period and participated in the Genpei War." After she finished her little explanation, to which Casey nodded through as he tried to stake a decent hold on the information she was giving him, Sara suddenly jabbed her chopsticks out at Casey while her eyes stayed on the computer screen. "I've been eating ramen all my life, so back off."

While the suddenly gesture in his direction caught him off-guard momentarily and had him near cross-eyed to stare at the broth laced ends, Casey's hands shot up in a sign of submission. "Yeah, hey, no problem." He batted the chopsticks down out of his face and quirked a rather amused look on his face. "You're almost as defense over ramen as Mikey is over pizza."

Shrugging in response to the comment, Sara pinched another clump of the noodles and slurped them up quickly while reaching out with her chopsticks hand to click the computer mouse on the back button to access another photo of the helmet they had been investigating for the passed hour now. "I don't like this Yoshitsune-san one bit." She mumbled over her food while the next photo popped up on the screen.

"Why do you say that?" Casey lifted a curious brow as he watched Sara's expression narrow on the screen, his own gaze soon returning to see this new angle of the same helmet. "I mean other than what you've already told me." The flat glare that he was the target of caused the once former hockey player turned nighttime vigilante to return that same glare. "Come on kid you think I'm blind? I've been dealing with four teenagers long before you showed up, so I know when there's something else bugging someone your age. Spill it. Now."

Sara continued her glare for a bit longer before finally superseding her position and set aside the nearly empty bowl of ramen on the computer desk. Breathing a quiet exhale through her nose, Sara sat back in her chair. "It's the fact that he had this look in his eyes that said he didn't believe was anything smart enough to know about folklore and history." Sara's mouth pulled down in frown as she looked over at Casey.

For a moment Casey held a rather thoughtful look on his face before reaching out and ruffling Sara's hair that was hanging loose down her back for once. "Don't let it bug you kiddo. Besides, what the hell does that guy know about you anyways?" He grinned while winking at her. "It's his fault for judging you without getting to know just how much of an encyclopedia you are." With that said he gently cuffed the side of her jaw as playful gesture to get a smile out on her face.

It worked. The right corner of her mouth tugged upwards almost immediately as she batted his hand away. "Yeah, yeah." Her attention returned forward to the computer screen, eyes narrowing suddenly as she stared at the side view of the helmet. There was gold inscribed kanji running along the cheek guard, but the image had not been uploaded in a big enough file for her to zoom in for a closer inspection. _I can't read what it says._ She leaned forward a bit closer, eyes almost squinting now to pick up anything familiar to her.

Unfortunately the sudden shout of a cellphone going off caused the teen to jump alongside the adult who started looking around like mad to find said object of noise making. Watching Casey scramble about for a bit, Sara finally rolled her eyes and reached across the computer desk to his side and moved a few folders off to the side, exposing the cellphone that was lit up with the flashing LCD screen and thrummed across the solid surface with each passing note. Picking the phone up, Sara merely glanced at the screen before flipping it open.

"Hey April." Sara greeted the caller on the other end of the line and smirked at Casey as he spun about with a hanging jaw and pointing finger. "Yeah he's here, hold on a minute." Holding the phone out to the still gawking adult, she lifted a brow.

"You cheated with the ninja thing again." Casey accused while swiping the phone out of her grasp.

"Yeah, it totally took sixteen years of training to find a cellphone." Sara gave him an even look as she stood up from her seat and headed off towards the kitchen with her empty bowl in hand. _It's getting a bit late, guess I better head home soon._ She sighed after seeing the bright green digits on the stove clock. It's was pushing eight o'clock, and although her parents were pushy about knowing where she was at all times, Sara knew her curfew was only two more hours away from now.

Running a hand through his hair, Casey glanced over at the kitchen where he could see Sara moving around through the open aired space that that been purposely cut out to give view from either side. "Yeah, she was showing me the helmet and telling me about that Yoshitsune guy. You still gonna try and follow through with his request?"

"_I'm not sure. If Sara says those scrolls are locked up in the Fushimi Inari-taisha, I really can't just trounce right on in through the front door and ask for them. Not only would that get myself in trouble with the Haruno Clan, but I can only imagine what could happen for Sara. She's not supposed to reveal that kind of information to outsiders."_

"Right. So then you're gonna tell this guy _no_ then, right?" Casey slowly turned himself about in the computer chair. "I mean you guys have another artifact to look for as well."

"_We do, but I haven't told Sara what it is yet. I'll do a bit of research on my own before I say anything to her. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about all of this Casey."_ April's voice wavered a bit as she spoke.

Casey exhaled a sigh and glanced off to his left as he noticed that someone was standing there. Glancing up he met Sara's grey-eyed gaze briefly before he nodded in response to the unspoken statement he knew she was going to say as soon as he got off the phone. "Well if you feel that way babe, maybe you should stop now." Words were exchanged from the other end of the line from April in response, and after assuring her that they would talk when she got home, Casey said a quick good-bye and hung up. "Let me guess," he spun his chair about to face Sara a bit better, "Time to head home?" He lifted a brow at her while offering a rather teasing smirk at the fact that she had a curfew to follow.

"Eh-he, yeah." Sara chuckled sheepishly while scratching at the back of her head.

The ride to her parent's apartment was only around twenty minutes, give or take all the stopping they seemed to have done thanks to an unusual amount of red lights, but the adult and teen pair held a conversation the whole time that covered bits and pieces of both their lives up till now. While Casey and Sara had met a few days after the initial meeting of the turtle brothers and April almost a month ago now, the two were still getting to know one another but were catching up quickly. And as such, Casey became one of the few adults in Sara's life that she actually called a friend.

Pulling up in front of the apartment complex at around a quarter till nine, Casey suddenly felt a bit uneasy as he got from his side of the van. It was incredibly quiet out on the streets, more so than what was the norm for a night in New York. There seemed to be absence of all noise and even motion aside from the heavy _**thunk**_ of the passenger side door closing. Out of nowhere an involuntary shudder vibrated through his body. Rubbing his arms quickly, even though they were beneath the long sleeves of his shirt, Casey glanced about the street quickly, his eyes soon alighting upon a rather odd sort of fog that seemed to curling down the street. A misty maze began to settle in about the air. _That can't be good._

Sara stepped out from around the front of the van, a curious look on her face as she wondered what had Casey lingering so long. Her mouth opened as if to ask him a question but not a sound was uttered as she noticed the look on his face and the direction of a very concentrated stare. Looking out from the corner of her eye, Sara now also noticed the milky hued mist that was creeping in like the fog roll over the San Francisco bay waters. It was nearing winter, but this kind of weather activity was still long off. Her eyes widened a moment as something struck her train of thought, a glint off in the distance that she had caught sight of at the last minute.

There was no shouted warning or anything of the like before Casey found that the right side of his body was slammed with the extra weight of a teenage girl who had suddenly sprung his way. Shoved the cold asphalt unceremoniously, Casey let out a heavy grunt as his body took the dual blows. He was used to being hit, shoved, smacked, kicked, and even thrown, but for some reason this felt like a whole experience to him as the sharp tack of a metal object embedding itself within a solid surface of similar material struck out in a harsh cry. Twisting his body about as he felt the departure of her weight, Casey pushed himself up into a halfway seated position while a bit of a scowl started to appear upon his face.

"We got a problem." Sara murmured quietly, her gaze remained fixated on the building mist that was now rushing up like a wave at high tide.

"Warn me next time! I like to at least have some sort of forewarning as to when I'm about to become rather close with street pavement!" Casey hissed while rearranging himself up into a crouched position against the door of his van.

Sara shot a rather quick glare over her shoulder at him. "There wasn't any time!" She hissed back before the sharp whistle of another incoming object had her attention and sent her into a combat roll to get up against the side of the van quickly. Two thin rounded_bo-shuriken_ stabbed into the ground where Sara had been crouched not but two seconds ago. "See!" She pointed at the Japanese weapons that had impaled the asphalt of a New York city street.

Casey stared at the two rather nasty looking tools of ninja trade and gulped. Those things had come in fast, and luckily enough Sara could react just as quickly. The _bo-shuriken_ were dark metal with a deep crimson colored ribbon tail wafting gently in a sudden chill breeze that breathed its way in through the street. "The Foot?"

"Maybe, but I can't fully support that theory with this mist." Sara nodded at the tide that had now fully engulfed them in a near impenetrable arena. The mist was thick and it only allowed two feet of visibility in front of those caught within it. "This is a _kirigakure no jutsu;_ a hidden mist technique that's utilized during assassination missions." Sara's slowly followed a direct path from right to left and back, grey eyes watching for the slightest movement from within the dewy wall while her ears traced through the quiet surrounding them.

"I don't ever remember the foot using fog like this before. Normally it's just those annoying smoke pellets." Casey mumbled while silently cursing himself for leaving his things behind at the apartment, then again he hadn't thought about the prospect of being ambushed outside Sara's home either. "So what do we do then? I mean we can't even see who it is that's trying to sneak up on us."

"We stay low and keep near the van, it's our only source of protection right now. If we keep our backs to it, then it reduces the chance of any one sneaking up on us." Sara replied while her gaze momentarily lifted upwards toward the window of the driver side. Embedded within the metal framing out the glass pane was another _bo-shuriken_ that had been thrown the first time before the mist filled the street. Quickly she reached up and yanked the weapon out of its metal cushion and took only a few seconds to examine it, hoping that whoever had thrown it was vain enough to carve a crest or kanji of some kind into the metal. "_Kuso._" Sara's eyes widened as they fell upon a scratched out crest etched into the metal.

With a double-take Casey turned his attention on the teen girl at his side with a bit of a confused look on his face. "What did you say?"

Waving him off quickly, Sara flipped the hand held weapon about in order to grip it the proper way as the need to protect one's self become horribly evident.

From within the thick mist dull footsteps began to scrap across the pavement in signal to an approach. Both Casey and Sara tensed up in response to the noise, their bodies moving into positions that held half way between the ready for either defense or offense. Neither on moved any further than that as they listened to the steps grow closer until the they halted almost ten feet in front of them. A spot in the mist seemed to suck in on itself allowing a view to whomever it was that had utilized the jutsu in the first place.

They numbered in eight. Dressed from head to toe in shades of deep purple and scarlet red while a single black body enveloping cloak was swept aside over the left shoulder. Masks bearing no expression or facial feature, save for two narrow angled slits over the eyes, were set over their faces to conceal their identity. They stood in a small tactical formation with one at the very front, separated from the others by only several paces.

Sara's face paled faster than what Casey thought was humanly possible as he caught sight of the stricken look upon her face from the corner of his eye. Her eyes were wide, pupils possibly small at the center of the grey iris, and her mouth drawn into a very small gesture of possibly dropping. The thing that seemed to disturb him the most was the fact that she didn't blink as she kept her gaze trained solely on the figures before them. _This isn't good at all._

_'What do you want?!'_ Sara's voice seemed to drop in tone as she spoke to the unmoving and foreign figures in the mist. Her use of Japanese signified to Casey that she at least seemed to know who they might be.

_'We have come to take the Great Secret that your clan has made you guardian of.'_ The lead figure replied back to her questions, an armor-guarded hand lifting to point a finger solely at her. _'Come peacefully **jinchuriki**, so that your friend may not be harmed.'_

Her eyes never once left the figures before her even while the look on her face contorted from momentary anger to sudden surprise. Shaking herself mentally from the fallen stupor she had set herself into, Sara narrowed her eyes upon them. _'Don't mess with me! Who sent you?!'_

The other seven figures behind the lead shifted a few steps from one another, creating an arm's length of space between the man on their left. This movement caused a surge of adrenaline to begin pumping its way through Casey. The sound of Sara's voice, the tension he could hear alongside the anger signaled that these guys were not friendly. Even if he was without his normal arsenal of weapons, Casey Jones would be damned if he didn't do everything in his power to protect Sara from these creeps even though he knew this teenager beside him was a trained ninja on par with the turtles.

Sensing Casey's own movements behind her, Sara couldn't spare a glance back over her shoulder after seeing the spread formation the group before them was taking. Her teeth grounded down upon one another beneath her now curled lips, canines showing more profoundly than the others.

_'Who we were sent by should not be all to hard for one such as yourself to guess. The Foot attempted an ambush on you, and when it failed we were called in.'_ The leader dropped the lifted hand to rest alongside the hip holding a knotted scarlet sash tail. _'I will give you one last chance to surrender peacefully and come with us. If you do not accept, we will take you by unnecessary force.'_

That seemed to snap the hair trigger that Sara's temper seemed to be hanging by thread upon as he hands flew up before her to hold a crossed seal that two fingers from either hand were needed for. "_Kage bunshin!_"

Several puffs of smoke from her left side and one on top of the van's hood erupted as Sara fed her chakra into a jutsu that she had used several times over the month already. As the smoke immediately cleared, dopplegangers of Sara's exact image appeared and moved in fight ready positions.

_'He did say you were a proficient user in __kage techniques, but you cannot win this fight with that alone.'_ The lead flicked a hand out towards Sara's direction, sending the seven cloaked figures out from behind.

Streaking out like flashes of dark light they came hurtling towards the teen and moonlighting vigilante who was still unarmed. However, they were thrown a rather unexpected curve ball as the teenage girl they sought to take by force hurriedly formed a set of hand seals that almost set them sliding to a halt. Unfortunately for these cloaked beings, their dumbfounded shock would prove to be a near fatal step.

"_Katon! Kisoku Hidama no jutsu!"_ Exhaling a breath she had sucked in during the formation of her hand seals, Sara ignited the spent oxygen with her chakra and sent a fireball the size of a VW beetle tumbling towards her attackers, catching them horribly off-guard.

Although the counter-attack was not foreseen, especially one of such an exploding mass array, the figures were anything but inexperienced as they halted their advance forward quickly enough to spring out of the way of the rolling ball of burning flame. As if in tandem, Sara's dopplergangers sprung from their own positions and jetted forward to engage the cloaked and masked beings in combat. Taking a hidden cue of some sort, the leader of the group inched his body forward in a jerking motion before disappearing like a stretched image that came back into view just feet from Sara's current position, a hand lashing out with three elongated and hooked claws to catch the teen with an injuring blow.

In defense of herself and to keep Casey from taking an unnecessary hit if she jumped out of the way, Sara brought the _bo-shuriken_ she had yanked out of the van door up and used it as a means to stave off the slicing attack. Grunting in response to heavy strike coming down on a eight and a half inch in length piece of metal that was only half a millimeter in diameter, Sara could only thank her attackers begrudgingly for making such a well crafted weapon. Having to use both hands to hold back the claws that were pushing down and coming horridly close to her face, Sara bit back a grimace as the pointed end of the _bo-shuriken _started to dig into the palm of her hand.

"Casey move!"

Not needing to be told twice as he snapped out of the staled sense of shock from the first fifteen seconds that explode in front of him, Casey scrambled to his feet and darted back towards the rear of the van. There, he yanked the back hatch open quickly and blessed the day he never listened to April when she told him to clean the van as he yanked out a wooden bat and hockey stick that had possibly fallen out of his golf bag of goodies at some point.

With Casey at the rear of the van, Sara shifted the distribution of her weight to the left foot as she kicked up her right while still in a crouch and planted it square in the middle of the masked being's chest. In one smooth motion, Sara used the weight of her attacker and fell backwards, head tilting off to the side enough to miss the sharped claw hooks that pierced the asphalt, and pushed herself into a backwards roll while guiding her planted foot through an extended kick. Lifting the claw wielding figure backwards overhead, Sara rolled forward once the heavy body had been tossed off her and twisted about quickly once on the balls of her feet.

Colliding with the ground and giving off a dull thud, the leader of the masked group rolled sideways and managed to push themselves up into a kneeling position. Shaking their head to regain a sense of balance, the leader was distracted from the at hand task as a heavy blow struck the back of the shoulders, a loud _**crack**_ echoing through the mist ridden streets.

A deep vibration thrummed through the wooden bat, the polished and waxed wood cracking in fine lines upon contact with the shoulders of the _bad guy_. Casey's hands felt almost numb from the vibrating like shock that traveled up his arms to the elbow. "Now that's really not good." He muttered while taking in the damage struck upon the bat and the slowly standing dude he had attempted to further put out of commission in aid to Sara. "Definitely not good." He edited his early comment as the figure he had looked to bring down started to turn towards him.

_No!_ Sara felt a sense of panic flood through her at the prospect of Casey being hit with those claws and reacted on the instinct her grandfather and others of the family clan had ground into her at an early age. The quick flick of her wrist sent the _bo-shuriken_ singing through the air straight for the leader, aimed for the front of the right shoulder.

The high pitched ping of metal striking metal rang out as the back swipe of claws connected with the flying _bo-shuriken_, deflecting the hand held blade elsewhere. Returning attention on to Sara, the masked leader shook a rather disappointed gesture of the head at her. _'How many times must you be told before it gets through to you? Friends are useless distractions that will get you killed in battle.'_

For the second time that night, Casey witnessed a look on Sara's face that he soon wouldn't forget. Color that had once returned momentarily during the rush of battle and adrenaline pumping rush, was now completely gone to the point that she looked like a porcelain doll. Her facial expression was akin to the _"deer caught in the headlights"_ stare as something else swam within the depths of her eyes. _'It...can't be...'_ She could feel her body quiver slightly beneath a building pressure of various mixed emotions that threatened to consume her. Both hands curled slowly into fists at her sides, the nails on her fingers bitting into the soft flesh of her palms, the first injury from _bo-shuriken_ causing a god awful ripple of pain through her.

Confused, Casey stared with a rather valid look that expressed his sense of lost understanding to what was going on. Judging by the look on Sara's face, he could only venture to guess that whatever the leader of the attacking party said had struck a deep nerve. _What I wouldn't give to know Japanese right now. _However, his thoughts would go elsewhere as he realized the need to scramble out of the way yet again as the masked leader stumbled backwards in a quick recoil.

Sara had lashed out, her fist connecting with the mask that covered the identity of the one who had come looking to take her. The heavy piece of painted armor gave out a hallow echo in response to being struck, a dent centering upon the place of impact that what needed force it would have taken to deal such damage. As the leader stumbled backwards, caught by the sudden blow, they recovered hurriedly in time to dodge another thrown punch that this time promised to take a head completely off the shoulders. Another swing, and another, expertly dodged and avoided. A leg lifted and shot out in a side swiping motion to catch the temple of the one behind the mask, but quickly lifted arm guards blocked the blow and held the teenager still for a moment.

_'Too easy.'_ The voice of the leader was dry, suffering no embarrassment to the first connecting hit taken. _'That look in your eyes, it's not yours now, is it?'_

The pupil had since tightened into a small black dot, a darker streak of grey blazing down in a vertical line that cut the light grey with a jagged edge. There was a blood lust behind those eyes that only the leader of the masked group of seven could see at the moment, and beneath that now dented mask, lips pulled into a proud smirk. In a move unseen and hard to even describe of Casey's point of view, Sara pushed with her held right leg and jumped off her left. An awkward twist of the body brought her left leg up and around behind the right as Sara dove into a tuck and roll, heel hooking behind the masked head and yanking down like an extra hand.

In a rough tumble the two hit the ground; the leader slung back towards the other seven who had finally struck down the three dopplegangers that had worked together to stay their advancement, and Sara kicking back up on to her feet with relative easy. As the group moved to rush for her and overtake her with their sheer numbers, they froze immediately at the lifted hand gesture that came from their leader. There was a dull thrum in the air that ripple out and pushed the mist conjured up through the use of chakra. It pulsed with each ragged and hampered breath that Sara inhaled and exhaled in an uneasy rhythm.

To Casey it felt as though someone had cranked up the base in an outfitted truck as it vibrated straight through him in a heavy near smothering manner. Setting a hand upon his chest he stared down for a moment before looking towards Sara with furrowed gaze. The vibration was coming from her, but as soon as he realized the source, his whole body started to waver as if it were being pushed down and squeezed at the same time. It was an oppressing sensation that had the grown man near buckling to his knees as a dark presence seemed to slowly move its way out from somewhere near Sara. "Kid...?" He near wheezed his muttered confusion before sinking to one knee, the wooden bat clattering upon the ground at his side. It was becoming a bit difficult to breathe now.

The group exchanged looks with one another even though their faces were covered by masks, their leader taking a small sliding step back as if to coax them to stand down in response to the unpleasant feeling that ate away the covering mist and inched towards them.

_'What is this horrible chakra?'_ One to the far right voiced aloud the question that the others nodded to in want of an answer.

_'It's the Great Secret we came looking for at his request. This is the power of that damn creature of Inari.'_ The leader sounded as though a loathing detest hung with its words. Hands tightening into fists beneath the cloak that now covered the purple and scarlet garb beneath.

As if on cue to the last sentence end, Sara disappeared like a flickering image cast by a desert mirage, only to reappear a mere two feet before the leader of the group a curled fist pulled back and shooting forward like a spring loaded battering ram. While the intended target had been the leader, a subordinate slid into the way and took the blow that had unfurled fingers hooking into the metal as the victim began to fall backwards in momentum to the heavy punch in the face. As the masked being fell, her hand yanked the secured mask from the face, exposing a half mask beneath that covered the face from the bridge of the nose down. Closed eyes and recognizable male features were all that remained unveiled.

Springing backwards in response to several swiping defense pushes from two others, Sara landed on the balls of her feet near Casey's van, the metal mask crunched partially beneath her grip.

The gargled choke of the one who had taken the hit muffled out from beneath the half mask as his comrades caught him before the strike against unforgiving pavement. The leader made a retreating gesture with a flick of the wrist, and in one explosion of a smoke pellet they were gone, leaving Casey Jones and Sara Reeve upon the streets of the city in a state of subsiding puzzlement and anger.

Regaining his breath, Casey got back up to his feet with a hand still upon his chest as he leaned against the rear of the van, eyes fixated upon the teenager who was staring down at the mask in her hands. _What was that?! It was...terrifying...I've never felt that afraid before in my life!_ "Sara...?"

"I'm sorry Casey." Her head turned to look back over her shoulder, the horrible thrumming that had been coming from her now gone along with that oppressing and vile feeling. Grey eyes now slack with what looked like sorrow and pleading apology. "Were you hurt at all?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm fine. But I would like to know who those trick-or-treaters were." An inclined tilt of his head and lifted brow prodded for an immediate answer.

Turning to face him, she lifted the mask enough to hold it level at her waist, the blank face tilted to stare at him and her at the same time. Her eyes fell downcast upon its crumpled body beneath her still dug in hold. "They don't have an official name, but I've seen them before. _The Faceless Ones_." Her hand clutched even more tightly upon the mask.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine  
What Nightmares May Come  
**

* * *

"_There's only one thing to say about pain, it hurts." - _**Zeke Willey**

* * *

_The faint light from whatever celestial bodies that poked their ethereal rays through the dismal grey sky swirled and sparkled on falling rain. A quiet murmur interrupted only by the suddenly **plop** of something holding much more weight as it hit the hard earth in a dark red splotch that was immediately diluted and almost washed away by the rain. There was a dull ache at the back of her head that caused sound to borderline on muffled slurring and impaired vision to fuzzy outlined shadows, she was forced to blink rapidly a few times before things seemed to fall back in line and recenter themselves well enough for her to see straight._

_The harsh pinch of metal assaulted her sense of taste causing her mouth to water in an attempt to be rid of the acidic tinge. Blood had apparently found its way in passed her lips, no doubt having traveled its way from the wound sitting up against her hairline on the left temple. Swirling her tongue about the inside of her mouth she gathered the taste amongst her own saliva and then proceeded to spit the vile mix out, but the aftertaste remained._

"_You should just die."_

_No infliction of a bladed weapon, nor the battering blow of a fist could have caused more injury than those four words. Her heart skipped a beat as her breath caught within her lungs. Eyes widening from the tortured shock of hearing such heartless cruelty while hands hung limply at her sides. No one had ever said anything like that to her before, but she had sensed the underlying disgust that many seemed to harbor against her. A disgust she couldn't come to understand until now._

_Here she stood, an arm rendered almost useless, numerous injuries torn open across her young body with fatigue threatening to be her utter downfall, and now with an emotional stab to her psyche; it was a wonder that she continued to stand upon her two feet through her own willpower. But it wasn't her own stubborn force of will that kept her standing, oh no. To her it felt as if someone had their hands slipped about her, holding her rock steady in a firm grip that made damn sure she stayed on her two feet._

_As if it had been as simple enough as turning the knob of a faucet, the rain ceased completely but left behind the deepening grey sky overhead. Taking this as come sort of cue, two combatants raced for one another at a dead run, their bodies giving off wavering auras of incredible power for being so young. Meeting at the center, a shout from either as they collided, an explosion followed immediately after that swept out from that one little spot and rocked both surrounding earth and tree._

_**You should have broken the seal! You should have let me OUT!**_

There was only one momentary twitch before a full on jerk of the body snapped her awake as if reacting to the end of the dream and the voice that bellowed from somewhere far off yet so close it vibrated through her chest. In a panic, Sara shot up in bed, stiff as a board and practically sweating bullets, her grey eyes were wide while staring down at the rumpled covers of her bed that had been twisted about in apparently a rather unsettling sleep. There was an odd thing about her eyes, other than the fact that they expressed an incredible sense of terror, was that for the briefest of moments they had pulled a color shift towards a pale shade of blue that held a darker ring about the pupil.

Once she finally blinked, the grey was back but the panic and fear still remained. Her breathing was starting to slow as she attempted to calm herself down. A heart racing near the speed of light probably wasn't good for ones' all around health. Running her left hand through her damp hair, Sara set her right hand over her stomach in a manner that seemed near the side of gingerly. She winced even at her own actions before tossing what covers still clung to her body off to the side. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Sara sat forward with her palms resting upon her knees so that her arms locked. _What was that? I haven't had that kind of dream in so long. Maybe it's because of what that guy said to me._

Lifting her head, Sara glanced over at her alarm clock. The bright red numbers of four am winked back at her. _You've got to be kidding me._ It had only been six hours since she fell asleep after that whole mess out front in the street. She exhaled a small sigh through her nose before looking away from the clock.

It had been a fortune of luck that her parents were out late on a dinner date with one another, and only returned home an hour after the initial fight that Sara and Casey had been put through. Even though she had tried to assure Casey that _'the faceless ones'_ would not be attacking again within the next ten seconds, he still insisted that he had least stay with her until her parents returned home. And thus, there was also the event of Casey Jones introducing himself to Sara's parents for the first time that night as well. Keeping quiet about the attack, insisted of course on Sara's part for now, Casey still suggested that she at least talk to Splinter the next day.

_Right. I have to talk to Splinter today when I get the chance._ She sighed again before flopping backwards on her bed, legs still dangling over the side so that her feet kept contact with the ground._April should be calling by at least six in a hysteric panic if Casey hasn't already told her. She'll probably demand that I go over to the apartment right away and then drag me down to see Splinter._ Staring at the ceiling lost its appeal as Sara glanced off towards her left, eyes now falling upon the desk situated near her door. Hidden beneath a pile of clothes and other things was the mask that she had ripped off the face of one of her attackers.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the hidden object, a dark brooding scowl cutting across her face as she sat up on her bed again with eyes still glued on her desk that was just a dark shape in her dim room. Getting up, Sara crossed the floor, coming to the desk as if drawn to the mask she had hidden. If her mother ever saw it, well,_Her going into hysterics would be the least of my worries._ Lifting up the pile she had shoved the mask under before going to bed, Sara retrieved the said item while switching the desk lamp on as it was the only source of soft light in her room. The painted metal gleamed as if were practically brand new. The blazing jagged red scar line cutting at an angle over the expressionless face with only the nipped out slant-eyed openings hovering on either side, it was all creepy even without being upon an actual face.

"_Jijii, what are they? They're scary!"_

"_Ah, yes, they are scary aren't they? That's the purpose of this mask, little one. They are meant to induce fear, oppress the target without even using a genjutsu and make it easier to take them. They have no real name that they go by, but by word of mouth for nearly three hundred years our clan has called them 'the faceless ones'. Never underestimate them, and never by any means are you to ever engage them on your own!"_

"_What do you mean Jijii? Why would I ever want to fight them?"_

"_You are a very special girl, little one. One day, when you have become a much stronger ninja, you may have to fight them as you are a guardian of Inaris' Secrets. But fight them only when you are backed by other ninja, comrades who can aid you against their numbers. If you are alone, retreat. Not many ninja can take them on alone, and not many survive the battle to talk about it later."_

"_Who are the faceless ones Jijii? Are they ninja too?"_

"_They were once a part of a ninja clan but are now nuke-nin; rogue ninja, runaways. They are loyal to no one, and are bound only by their greed for power and wealth. They are no longer ninja."_

Sara's grip tightened upon the mask that already bore the indentations at the top where her fingers had attempted to dig as deep as possible. Even though her grandfather had warned her, told her to never fight these nameless ninja, she had taken them on and managed to survive. Had it not been for the fact that she was taught techniques earlier in her training to create solid replications of herself, dopplegangers that could fight as her backup, more than likely she would not be in her room right now under her parents' roof. But still, something bothered her, more so than the fact that she had been attacked. The leader had attacked her personally once his subordinates were occupied with her dopplegangers, and he had reprimanded her with a saying she had been told once by someone important in her life...who had been important.

_But they said you were dead. Kiriu...are you really still alive?_ The free hand at her side curled into a fist, tightening to the point where her fingertips dug into the palm of her hand. The same hand that had been injured by the point of the _bo-shuriken_ that had been used to stave off what could have been an even worse injury from the claws of the leader. _Wait a minute..._ Her gaze shifted from the mask and down to her other hand that unfurled to reveal what should have been a deep gash at the middle of the palm. Only, instead of that wound she had successfully hidden from the view of her parents, there was only a dark scar that stood out against her lighter skin tone. It was a bit tender still, but it wasn't horrible.

Her mouth twitched, an unamused look coming across her face.

Another something she was going to have to explain. "Great." She murmured quietly while moving to set the mask back to its hiding place. However, she hesitated. Eyes staring hard at the piece of shaped and rounded featureless metal. Something moved behind Sara's eyes, another's reaction that was not her own. One singular glint and it was gone as she pushed the mask back underneath the pile of assorted junk on her desk.

If anything, she needed to get back to sleep and rest a bit more before her cellphone would eventually erupt with April's frantic call somewhere around six maybe six-thirty, give or take whether or not Casey told her when he got home about what had happened. Slipping back into bed and pulling the covers up around her tightly, Sara stared at the red numbers on her clock before turning over and closing her eyes.

_**Four Hours Later...**_

"**Good morning Manhattan! We are looking at an overcast day ranging in the high forties to the low fifties, so you're gonna wanna bundle up a bit. West 42nd Street is experiencing a bit of a back up in traffic this morning as well as the usual traffic jams up near Time Square."**

The blaring voice of the radio DJ nearly shouted right into Sara's ear as she had somehow gotten herself in one of those positions in bed that had her head hanging rather close to the bedside table. The bubbly and energetic voice was enough to wake her up immediately as Sara had made sure to have the volume up on a rather high number. Blinking dumbly for a few moments, she squinted at the glowing LCD numbers that stamped out the current time – 8:00am.

"No way." She mumbled while sitting up and bed, blurry-eyed and hair looking as though she had gone through a wind tunnel. She would have bet money on the fact that April would have been calling her by at least six o'clock, but yet here she was waking up at eight because of the alarm clock. Not even th murmured chirp of a missed call could be heard. It was weird.

Tossing her covers aside and slipping out of bed, Sara walked over to her bedroom door and twisted the knob to get out into the hallway. As soon as the door was even open a crack the smell of coffee hit her senses and woke her up a bit more. Padding off down the hall, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she entered an empty living room and glanced over at an equally empty kitchen. Her parents had already left for their respective jobs, leaving her alone in the apartment yet again. Scratching the back of her head, Sara trudged over to the kitchen area and made a beeline for the cabinet that held the mugs.

Moving about the kitchen she came across the TV remote that her dad had no doubt left on the counter as he tended to watch the morning news while getting ready for work. Multi-tasking, Sara aimed the remote at the TV off in the open living room as she pulled a mug down out of the high cabinet. The black screen winked to life and soon the voices of the news anchors filled the living room and trailed their way into the kitchen.

"**A stationary fog coming in off the Atlantic have many wondering if maybe there's some ground truth to a popular work of fiction by famed author Stephen King. Reports of this strange fog are said to collaborate on a few specific aspects of this strange occurrence, one in which being that while it lasts for only a few hours it is extremely dense. Dock workers on the graveyard shifts who have encountered this fog over the past week say that when in the middle of the fog it is easy to become disoriented and even nauseas upon leaving it. This has officials a bit concerned."**

Sara glanced back over her shoulder at the TV while setting the coffee pot back on its hotplate. Her brow held a furrow as she listened to the anchor woman give her report on a minor headline that seemed to be slowly gaining attention from a few people. Stationary fog sounded a bit odd, and with the details of it being incredibly dense to the point where upon entering it one was quickly disoriented and even felt sick after leaving, Sara couldn't help but wonder.

Moving into the living room from the kitchen, Sara stood behind the sofa with eyes fixated on the TV while sipping at her coffee. The report was done and over with in the next minute, the anchors moving on to something about construction going on near the Hudson. Something didn't sit right, especially not after last night and the genjutsu that had been used on her and Casey to blindside them. _I was hoping it had just been some weird coincidence that the Foot knew that I was apart of the Haruno Clan when they ambushed me in the subway. But with the appearance of the faceless and now this, I'm starting to fell worried. Maybe I should send word to Jijii._ Her mouth pulled into a frown as she walked off back down the hall to her room.

Somewhere around ten minutes was spent searching her room for the cellphone she seemed to have misplaced, only to come to the conclusion that the only way she was going to find said belonging was to use the home phone and call it. Dialing her number on the cordless phone from her parents' room, Sara stepped out into the hall, ears tuned for the familiar ring tone she had set. It wasn't hard to miss it, especially since the blaring words of a song she had managed to rip off an internet download of _The Same Old Song_ by Sev were hard to miss. She waited as the line rang a few times and then frowned as she headed towards her room to listen for possibly the muted tone as she figured it had gotten tossed under something by accident.

Nothing.

"Crap." She hung the phone up as the voice mail message came over the line. There was a good chance she had it set on vibrate or even silent, and then there was kicked in dread that she had lost it. "Man, no wonder I wasn't woken up earlier. April's gonna kill me." Sara muttered under her breath while dialing the number for April's cellphone on the cordless.

Michaelangelo paced back forth near the main door of the underground home he shared with his three older brothers and their father, blue eyes glancing every three seconds to the door, hoping that at any moment one of his few topside friends was going to walk in. Worry twisted his stomach and scribbled a frown upon his face, and it only intensified with each passing second and minute.

"Wow, Mikey looks really worried." Donatello spoke in hushed tones to his eldest brother Leonardo, who nodded in agreement. "You think one of us should talk to him? I mean he's been pacing since April called, and that was almost three hours ago." He glanced at Leonardo with his own look of worry. Donatello was concerned for Sara's well-being at the moment, afraid that maybe something had happened to her during the night, and also worried over Michaelangelo's personal concern for their female friend. It was a bit unusual for their young brother to be appear this worked up.

Leonardo shook his head. "Even if one of us did talk to him, Mikey's not going to just sit down and relax. In all honesty, I want to go topside and head to Sara's place, but Master Splinter said we should wait things out." Leonardo recited the advice their father had given them as soon as April's information had been passed on to him. "If anything, I bet you she lost her cellphone again."

"You've gotta be kidding me." Raphael's gruff voice spoke up from his place in front of the TV, and away from his brothers who hovered near the front door. "You guys are getting all worked up over one girl, one kunoichi might I add, who's from some legendary ninja clan and can take care of herself. Worrying about her because some masked Foot ninja jumped her and Casey the other night ain't gonna do you any good." His amber-eyed gaze didn't even leave the TV screen as he channel surfed for something entertaining to watch. His lack of concern was rather evident and frowned upon by the other turtles.

Michaelangelo stopped his pacing long enough to shoot the back of Raphael's head a quick glare. "Yeah, well, Sara's our friend! That's why I'm worried! You're suppose to worry about your friends when something like this comes up!" He shot back, his tone of voice unusually serious and almost strict with reprimand to his older brother's lack of all around care for someone who had been nothing but nice to him from the very beginning. Michaelangelo's retort caught his brothers off-guard, and even had Raphael looking back over his shoulder at him with a surprised look in his eyes.

Before any kind of comeback could be so much as thought out on Raphael's part, the door lifted up into the pocket frame. Michaelangelo's head nearly snapped back over his shoulder, blue eyes lighting up instantly while a huge smile pulled out across his face. "SARA!"

In an instant, the teen was nearly tackled as she stepped into the underground home of her unique friends. Swept up into the overjoyed hug of Michaelangelo and squeezed, Sara first went completely stiff at the force of the impact before blinking dumbly as she was lifted up off her feet momentarily and then set down.

"You're okay! You're alive!" Michaelangelo cried out in his usual bubbly manner while quickly inspecting his friend just to assure himself of this. She looked to be in one whole piece, if only a little tussled and wide-eyed in response to his zealous greeting. "April said you and Casey were jumped last night."

"Yeah." Sara replied slowly while shifting her gaze to the other two turtle brothers coming up alongside Michaelangelo. "We were. But the dudes left."

"After you handed them a royal butt-kicking right?" Michaelangelo pipped up, mind playing out a vastly expanded upon fight he didn't really know word one about other than it being mentioned.

Sara shook her head slowly. "No."

"Then why did they leave?" Donatello appeared much more relaxed alongside Leonardo with Sara standing before them. His worry over what he had heard firsthand from April had lifted with her appearance, but its still gnawed at the back of his mind as the truth of the matter was that she had in fact been ambushed by unknown assailants.

"Actually, I think it would be better if you started with why they attacked you in the first place." Leonardo pointed out while noting the additional appearance of April and Casey in the doorway.

"I believe that would be a very good idea." Splinter's voice entered the main living area as he appeared from the dojo. The elderly anthropomorphic rat had been meditating for the passed three hours, focusing all he had learned from his Master Yoshi to gain further insight to the attack. "Please, Sara-san, have a seat." He gestured toward the couch and lazy boy that formed the semi-circle about the TV.

Casey grinned while passing Sara on his way in, reaching out and ruffling her hair with a hand. "Yeah champ, it's story time. I'll help you out, although I think I may have left my crayons and paper at home." He laughed while walking over the couch where Raphael still sat upon. Casey's laugh was cut off into a strangled choke as a backpack collided with the back of his head rather quickly.

"Don't worry, I brought 'em for ya old man." Sara shot back while holding a look to her face that challenged Casey to even dare make another wise crack as he snatched the backpack up off the floor.

"That's it, April no more straight coffee for that one this early in the morning!" Casey met Sara's glare with his own as he yanked the backpack open and rummaged inside, briefly wondering if Sara had really brought something. "You better have packed the scented ones." He grumbled, taking a jab at her earlier comment and disliking the fact that she had even noted him as an _'old man'_. His fingers grazed over a cool texture that was incredibly smooth beneath his touch. Yanking it out, Casey stared at the faceless mask that he had watched Sara rip off a face the night before.

The image of that last blow replayed in his mind, the details were a bit fuzzy, but that heavy feeling he had experienced was still there during the initial strike. Shuddering, Casey looked away from the mask he held as it started to give him the creeps.

April stared at the mask from behind Casey's shoulder, eyes tracing the white featureless surface that held only one jagged red strip between the narrowed eye slits. Her eyes alighted upon the indentations near the top, a furrow formed between her brows as she glanced over her shoulder towards Sara as she came around to take a seat on the lazy boy. "These markings up at the top of the mask, they aren't originally part of the overall design, are they?"

"Uh, no. I kind of added that when I ripped it off the guy's face." Sara sat back in the chair, momentarily glancing up as she caught sight of Michaelangelo hovering above her.

"That thing is seriously giving me the creeps." Michaelangelo commented aloud while staring at it from his place behind Sara's chair.

"Masks like these are used for that exact reason Mikey." April tore her gaze from the mask as she was starting to feel oddly overwhelmed by its vacant stare. "Samurai used demon faced masks to intimidate their enemies, make them think twice about attacking and gave the wearer a delayed advantage on the first attack."

"But the mask of _the faceless ones_ is not meant for that purpose I am afraid." Splinter interjected as he came closer to inspect the mask for himself. He met the rather surprised look on Sara's face with his usual genteel smile. "Yes, Sara-san, I am well aware of_the faceless ones_ myself. My Master Yoshi spoke of them when we first arrived in New York. He was afraid that in his vengeance, Oroku Saki would enlist their aid. I have never heard such fear in my Masters' voice as he spoke of them." He exhaled a quiet sigh as he turned to take a seat upon the couch.

Donatello scratched at the back of his head, confused like his brothers as to what this all meant. It was obvious that this mask was incredibly creepy as Michaelangelo had pointed out, and that whoever had attacked Sara and Casey the other night wore these masks. However, he could sense a rather uneasy atmosphere collecting about them, and it bothered him. "So, who are these _faceless ones_? I mean, they don't sound as though they're connected to The Foot."

"They're not connected to anyone Donny." Sara glanced over at the purple banned turtle. "They're rogue ninja, _nuke-nin_, who will take contracts from anyone or anything willing to pay a high price for their services. The masks they wear are used for two purposes; one is mainly conceal their former identity, and the second is to induce an all consuming fear the immobilizes their targets immediately in a state of temporary paralysis. Normally it's because of genjutsu that's been used before their initial appearance before their target."

"So that freaky fog that we were surrounded by was a..." Casey trailed off as he couldn't quite grasp the pronunciation of the word Sara had used.

"A genjutsu? Yeah." Sara nodded.

Leonardo lifted a brow while crossing his arms over his chest. "Why would these guys target you anyways Sara? I mean it doesn't make any sense. The Foot wouldn't hire someone else to do their work for them, if in fact they're still bent on capturing you."

"Yeah, you know what, that sounds like the most decent question I've heard all day." Raphael spoke up suddenly as he saw his chance to finally voice his own opinion out in the open. While initially, when he and his brothers had first seen Sara during a pizza run, he was impressed at how well she could fend for herself and the ninjutsu she deployed. But after she was ambushed by The Foot and identified by them specifically, he had begun to doubt whether or not she was anything other than what she projected. No one gets ambushed by The Foot like that if they weren't on either their 'to-do list' or 'most wanted list'. Standing up from his seat on the couch, Raphael took a step towards Sara. "What aren't you telling us?"

Sara stared at Raphael with a scowl crawling its way across her face. She was used to him snubbing her, ignoring her very presence whenever she came down to hang out with his brothers, and just shrugged it off every time he gave her the cold shoulder when she attempted to talk to him or include him on something she was already doing with his brothers.

However, she picked up on the underlying distrust he seemed to harbor against her, the tone of his voice and even his body language was enough to convince her of this finally. "My clan guards secrets handed down by the _kami_ deity of Inari, like I've said before. The greatest secret we protect for Inari, is also the darkest. It is coveted and sought after by enemy ninja clans and rogue ninja alike. It's not locked up in the shrine, it's locked up somewhere else and guarded by one solitary ninja from my clan until the day they die. The day that I was born, I was made the guardian of that dark secret. I was cursed. I was made a monster." Her gaze fell, her resolve crumbled as she hung her head with slumped shoulders.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten  
The Tale of the Nine-tails Jinchuriki**

* * *

_"For as children tremble and fear everything in blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true." - _**Lucretius**

* * *

_**Sixteen years ago...**_

**Fushimi-ku Ward; Kyoto, Japan / Haruno Clan Compound**

Thunder rolled and cracked within boiling black clouds that arrived in the skies exactly at sundown. It seemed rather appropriate for a day like this, but it also served as a rather ominous sign that a few took to heart. Rain spilled upon the earth, turning the dry hard packed streets and paths into thin puddles of runny mud that made walking about any faster than a decent pace a hazard. The beach and dark wood colored buildings that populated the grounds a single isolated compound held a lifeless look to their empty windows with shutters drawn shut. Sharp breezes roughly jingled the ceramic and or metal wind chimes hanging from the outside eaves.

Not a soul was out in this storm.

The only sign of active life was the distant golden glow of lights further toward the middle of the compound, the largest building loomed over the rest of the compound with its out sweeping roofs and arches that held to the ancient architecture of centuries long since passed. It was here that any and all signs of movement could be found as the elders of the compound had gathered with several key figures from within their own bloodlines.

Candles and paper lantern sconces flickered with their small flames, casting soft shadows and an eerie glow all about the central chamber of the building. Standing in a wide circle about two ornately carved tables fashioned from thick slabs of cypress and stained dark cherry with gold inlay, twelve elders of the Haruno Clan held their gaze upon the tables. On the table to the left, a man who appeared to be somewhere within his late fifties, white-haired and dark-eyed, lay flat upon his back with clasped upon his chest. He stared at the high vaulted ceiling above him, tracing the inscriptions and images that had been placed there hundreds of years ago.

From a side door in the central chamber, a young ward appeared and quietly scurried to the elder standing at the head of the circle. Dropping to one knee quickly out of sheer respect and reverence for the man, the ward bowed his head. "My lord _K__age_, the child has been born." He murmured quietly, the muffled sound carrying softly through the massive room.

Glancing down upon the young ward, the elder addressed as _K__age_, lifted a bushy brow. "And?"

"My lord, the child is born a girl." The ward replied, eyes still keeping a downcast stare set upon the wood planked floor.

The nearest at hand jerked their heads up, eyes wide with a sense of both surprise and deep-seeded shock as they stared with mouths dropped in aghast. The _K__age_ briefly took note of their stares before looking to the ward yet again. "Bring her in."

"Yes, my lord." The young ward nodded before hoping up to his feet and departing as quickly as he appeared.

"_Kage_-sama, you can't be serious!" The closet female elder at had hissed while turning towards him. "There has never been a first born female child used to contain the creature!"

The_Kage_ slowly met the gaze of the woman at his side. "Fumio-san, we have no choice. Inari specifically instructed that every one hundred and fifty years the first born child of that end day should be the next chosen vessel. We were not told the child must be a boy at any point. The Haruno Clan has sworn to Inari that we would protect this dark secret with our lives, man and woman alike. It makes no difference that this first born child is a girl." He quietly reprimanded the near hysterics his fellow ninja were beginning to murmur beneath amongst one another. "For nearly a thousand years this clan has dedicated itself to Inari's will, protecting the secrets we were entrusted with. We will not detain our commitment over the simple argument concerning the gender of the next_jinchuriki."_

A silence fell over the chamber as the rest of the elven elders saw truth in the words of the _Kage_. The shinobi who had remained silent throughout the entire conversation found it necessary to speak as though willed to do so. Sitting up, he glanced back over his shoulder and twisted his body in order to meet the gaze of the _Kage_. "_Kage_-sama, I feel as though the next vessel will be someone special. I can sense the creature stirring inside of me at the mention of a female container, as if it were, pleased with this turn of events. Perhaps the child will remind it of Inari, and perhaps maybe it will begin to recover the sanity that Inari hoped that it would one day." He spoke calmly, his baritone carrying to the ears of each elder there, almost assuring them that this was in fact nothing to be distraught over.

However, there were still a few who held a sense of contempt and even hatred for the mentioned beast their clan had been entrusted to hold sealed away from the world. It was these few who exchanged frowning glances but remained silent.

While thunder rumbled overhead, booming against the massive structure, the faint but clear cries of a newborn sounded from outside the doors of the chamber, growing louder as the approach was made. The large double doors opened inwards, creaking and groaning on the heavy metal hinges, the cries of new life now filling the chamber as a Midwife and the ward from before entered. Walking stiffly but with hurried steps, the Midwife held close to her a small baby girl wrapped up within a single white blanket. The child's cries were sharp, pitching off the walls and rebounding high up into the vaulted ceiling.

All eyes were set upon the child entering their midst, the shinobi sitting upon one of the tables seemed almost transfixed by the small babe, eyes holding a bluish hue to his normally dark eyes. It was as if something else watched through him the passing of the child.

Bowing first and the kneeling, the Midwife presented the newborn before the_Kage_. "_Kage-_sama, your granddaughter; Haruno Tsunade."

A collective gasp escaped the mouths of all within the chamber, including both the shinobi and the young ward who stared with wide eyes. None had been informed that indeed the child to become the next vessel, the next _jinchuriki_, was in fact the granddaughter of the _Kage_. The woman at the _Kage_'s side appeared startled, as she stared wide-eyed at the now much quieter babe the Midwife held out.

"_Kage_-sama!" She couldn't find the words to even finish her question, let alone present it. Instead she could only dwell upon the child's name, the sheer fact that she was the blood of the _Kage_. Dumbfounded like the rest, she opened and closed her mouth a few times like a drowning fish before snapping herself out the self-imposed stupor. "I don't understand, your grandchild was not to be born for another few days!"

The_Kage_ remained quiet even as he took the baby in his arms, dismissing the Midwife who scurried out of the chamber with doors closing behind her. "My daughter wanted me to name her, she asked me to give her a strong and beautiful name. I could think of no greater honor than to name her after the wife of the gallant ninja Jiraiya." He spoke quietly, aged eyes staring down at the now murmuring baby that stared up at him with bright eyes, small hands curling into fists and uncurling as if testing her appendages out. He smiled at her, the love for his grandchild immensely great, as was the sadness hidden beyond that for the fate she would soon be forced into. "Strong and beautiful. I think that you may be right in your words, Saizo. I believe that my granddaughter may yet be something very special."

The shinobi, Saizo, nodded slowly as he stared at the child held within the arms of her grandfather. _The feeling still remains, I am not wrong in my assumption of this child's presence. This may be destiny at its finest._ He exhaled a quiet sigh before turning back around and laying himself down upon the flat surface of the table. It was time.

The newborn was set upon the table beside the one Saizo resided upon, the blanket unwrapped from about her tiny body as the seal was painted over her freshly cut umbilical cord, the kanji of fire at the center of the seal's circular crest. The _Kage _stepped back, trading places with the woman who had stood beside since the start of the gathering. The lights within the chamber began to flicker as the air stirred with a heavy malice that leaked from Saizo himself, his face twisting into a contorted grimace as he could feel raw power leaking out from around the same seal he bore upon his own naval.

Lifting her right hand up, the female elder brought her thumb to her lips as they parted and nipped a deep cut that quickly bled a deep red. Quickly she slid her thumb over the open palm of her left hand, a streak of red blood left behind before her hands clasped together to form the first seal – _snake_, before moving through a series of other hand seals that included _boar, ram, rabbit, dog, rat, bird, horse, _and _snake_ once again. "_**Shiki Fuujin!**_"

Behind her, a twist in the air akin to something like the flicker of mirage, slowly started to distort the view to background beyond her. From the center of the twist, a ghostly figure appeared, a ceremonial death mask of sorts holding place where a face should have been. Long flowing robes, an elongated hat perched atop a head of wild hair, several strings of prayer beads hanging from skeletal wrists and wrapping about bony fingers; a death god had been summoned. Holding the final seal, eyes narrowing as a sharp pain stabbed through her body, the female elder exhaled a trembling breath, keeping her gaze forward as the pained cries of Saizo began to fill the chamber.

A new set of hand seals were quickly formed. "_**Shishou Fuuin!**_" The seal crest painted upon the naval of the newborn began to glow a dim pale shade of blue. More pain began to rip through her body as she forced herself to form another set of hand seals. "_**Hakke no Fuuin Shiki!**_"

All light within the chamber blew out, a grave stillness engulfed the building as a whole and even seemed to spread out across the compound, only the cries of the baby could be heard within the silence. No rumble of thunder could compare with what came next as a ground shuddering roar bellowed in a deep vibration out from the building, a heavy pressing feel smothered the entire compound as though something dark and evil had appeared.

Within the building, the central chamber held a deep red glow as the snarling face of a canine-like creature appeared with a spiraling column of chakra coils, nine in total, that had become visible and given color. The face gnashed its teeth and roared, an underlying high pitched scream that sounded like metal scraping against metal in a distorted manner. The ghostly hand of the death god hovering behind her protruded through the center of her chest and held tight to a specific chakra coil within the spiraling column. The canine face growled, curling its upper lip in a snarl as if enraged to the fact that this one specific coil was being held submissive by the death god.

In an instant, it was all over, a darkness encompassed the central chamber. Slowly a few candles blinked to life, the pale glow offering very little light to the massive room. The cries of the baby cut through a somber silence.

"The Nine-tails has been sealed once more. Inaris' greatest secret is once more in the hands of a solitary guardian." The _Kage _stood beside the lifeless body of the shinobi Saizo, his fingertips gently closing his heavy-lidded eyes. "Rest in peace, sensei." He murmured quietly, a hand resting momentarily upon the shoulder of the former _jinchuriki_. The continuing cries of his granddaughter drew his attention to her.

There were specks of blood and black ink covering about the area that the seal resides upon. Her little face was screwed up tightly in a frustrated look as she continued to cry.

Several of the elders were already attending to their comrade who lay upon her side, eyes gently closed and small smile playing upon her lips. The young ward stepped forward, surveying what had been left in the wake of the transfer and sealing of the Nine-tails of Inari. He gaze traveled from the body of Haruno Saizo, to the unmoving form of Elder Fumio, and finally came to rest upon the small crying girl that the_Kage_ held in his arms and wrapped the blanket about.

"_Kage_-sama...?" The young ward approached, his face a mix of confusion and sadness for the passing of two great ninja.

"Every one hundred and fifty years, the Kyuubi of Inari must be resealed within a new vessel, as the seal on the previous has finally weakened to the point of breaking. If the seal ever breaks, the crazed fox-demon will escape back into the world and wreck unimaginable chaos and destruction in its madness. The Haruno Clan was entrusted by Inari herself to keep the Kyuubi sealed away and protected from all who seeks its foul power as it is the greatest of all the tailed-beasts. It is the unfortunate duty of one ninja from this clan; the first born child on the Last Day of Sealing is the chosen guardian selected by Inari to become the next _jinchuriki_. The Power of Human Sacrifice." The _Kage_ stared down at his granddaughter, a sad look shimmering within his eyes. "Saizo-sensei has taught and reared several fine ninja in this clan, you included Jiraiya-san." His gaze flickered to the young ward. "Fumio's sacrifice will not be forgotten alongside his. Both will be remembered and their memory forever honored."

Jiraiya, the young ward who looked to no more than his late teens, stared the baby who had begun to quiet down. "And, your granddaughter,_Kage_-sama?"

"Will be trained by you when she comes of the appropriate age alongside two others like any other genin." The _Kage_ smirked as he watched Jiraiya's jaw drop, eyes wide and blinking dumbly. "She will need your training Jiraiya-san. From this day forth, she will be hunted for the rest of her life as she carries the Kyuubi within her, guarding Inaris' greatest and darkest secret given over to the Haruno Clan."

Still lost within his stupor, Jiraiya nodded slowly, swallowing hard as he could already feel a great amount of pressure come to rest upon his shoulders. Why the _Kage_ had handed over the responsibility of training his granddaughter, the _jinchuriki_ of the Kyuubi, to him...he would never fully understand...at least not now.

_**Present Day (November 2006)...**_

**Manhattan, New York / Underground home of the TMNT**

There was a sort of stunned silence that pressed down upon the group, jaws dropped or ajar as eyes stared wide at the human teenager sitting on the edge of the lazy boy. Her eyes stared at the ground before her feet, fingers pinching and picking at one another as she couldn't bring herself to meet the gaze of those whom she had become friends with through an odd assortment of circumstances after moving into a Manhattan neighborhood almost two months ago.

As redundant and even as corny as it sounded, the tension in the room was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. No one knew how to respond to that, the personal background of a young life and the ninja clan she hailed from was something straight out of a folktale. But while it was at first difficult to wrap one's mind about this account, it was as equally hard to dismiss the fact that Sara looked incredibly miserable in her slumped posture and downcast gaze.

"So," April's voice broke the silence, while also breaking on the first note, forcing her to clear her throat before continuing. "That's why The Foot and these masked guys attacked you in an ambush? They want the demon-fox that's sealed inside of you?" Her brows knitted together as she spoke.

Sara nodded her head. "Yeah." Her voice barely reached above a whisper as she spoke. Somehow, she felt horrible for having kept all of this from them, but at the same time, she felt relieved and utterly terrified.

The first time she told anyone about this, it had been to her best friend while living in Japan on the clan compound. And then that same best friend tried to kill her. The only other time before now was back in Colorado. She had made friends with several girls from her school whom she thought were completely loyal and trustworthy to reveal such a vast amount of knowledge to, hoping that she could confide in them the pain and misery she felt with such a heavy burden and curse placed upon her.

Unfortunately, she had been wrong about the friendships she had forged. When she told them, they didn't believe her. In fact they laughed and congratulated her on having such an incredible imagination and vast knowledge on Japanese folklore. But when she showed them, used her doppleganger replication technique; they called her a monster and ran. After that, she was literally shunned at school as rumors ran like wildfire. Names and words of the unkind nature were tossed her way. No one would even look at her.

Would it happen again here? Would the friends she had made, people just as different as she was, shun her and leave her to possible death at the hands of the greedy who sought ultimate power through the crazed demon sealed away inside of her?

An irritating sting pricked at her eyes, forcing Sara to shut her eyes tight as she bit down on the bottom of her lip and cringe against the silence that surrounded her.

"You're not the monster Sara." His voice level held a low volume at first, blue-eyes staring at the back of her bowed head. "If anyone showed be called a monster, it's the people who don't care whether or not you live at the end of their plans." Michaelangelo held an usually serious look upon his face as he reached a hand out and set it upon the back of her shoulder. "You're my friend; one of the few from the topside who didn't call me a monster and runaway. And because you're my friend, I am not going to let anyone hurt you."

The eyes of his brothers were glued to him, wide with a sense of baffled surprise at how serious their little brother was being. They had always seen how incredibly genuine Michaelangelo was, never doubted his sincerity, and even now it brought about their own resolution.

"Mikey's right Sara. You're our friend, and we're not going to let The Foot,_the faceless_, or whoever else is after you, hurt you." Donatello stepped forward, an assuring and comforting smile growing upon his face as she lifted her head.

Casey jumped to his feet, hands curling into fists as he brought his arms in tight against his side. "Kiddo you know I'm here for ya; demon-fox, weird ninja stuff and all! Underdogs like us gotta stick together!" He grinned while jabbing a fist forward and giving the slowly lifting girl a thumb's up.

"I'm not letting The Foot get a hold of you either." Leonardo nodded while crossing his arms. "Like Mikey and Donny said, you're my friend too. The next time those _faceless_ show up, you'll have us backing you up." As he spoke, he glanced out of the corner of his eye towards Raphael, who seemed to be caught up in his own thoughts at the moment with gaze adverted elsewhere.

"The guys are right." April ducked her head a bit to at least catch Sara's morose stare as she was starting to pull out from the downhearted presence she had cast herself within. "We're going to help you. Because whether you like it or not, we're stuck to you." She grinned as Sara's grey-eyed gaze met with her own green one.

"Yeah, besides," Michaelangelo grabbed Sara's other shoulder and yanked her back into the cushion of the lazy boy and grinned down at her. "You're irreplaceable."

She stared up at the grinning turtle, eyes wide and blinking as her breath caught within her lungs for a brief moment. The stunned look on her face was priceless as she stared at Michaelangelo who only grinned further in response to the look he was receiving.

"It is only during our darkest times, Sara-san, that we realize who in fact will stand by us to the bitter end." Splinter stood slowly to his feet, hands resting peacefully upon the rounded top of his walking stick. As Sara looked to him, Splinter gave her small smile that reminded her of grandfather specifically. "While we know the goal of our enemies, I think it is time we also inquire into who it is we are truly dealing with. _The faceless ones_ would more than likely not be working alongside The Foot. It is still quite strange that The Foot came to even know what you looked like and that you had moved stateside."

"Yeah, that does seem a bit strange. You said The Foot and the Haruno are enemies to being with, so it reasons to stand that maybe they've been watching you. But it still doesn't answer who they know to look for in the first place." April mused while sitting back upon the arm rest of the couch. "I think Splinter's right. Someone much bigger is pulling strings, it's the only thing that would make sense."

"You really think there's someone else behind the scenes?" Sara lifted a brow.

"Hey, The Foot said that there was someone who wanted to '_meet_' Sara before they jumped her in the subway. You don't think maybe...?" Donatello trailed off while looking to his father.

Splinter quietly inhaled and then exhaled a sigh as he closed his eyes a moment. "It is a possibility that the Shredder may have returned to The Foot. Whether or not it is Oroku Saki, I cannot say."

A nervous glance was exchanged between Donatello and Michaelangelo, the latter gulping at the thought of the Shredder (any Shredder at that) returning as leader of The Foot clan.

"You said these _faceless ones_ are rogue ninja who deserted their clans right?" For the first time since bullying Sara straight into an all out account of her background, Raphael spoke up and gained the attention of **everyone**. He shrugged. "Maybe, one of these guys is a rogue from your clan. It's not an impossibility that the Foot are the ones working for _the faceless_."

Sara's eyes widened immediately as her own thoughts brought back up the dream that had awoken her in the middle of the night. _There's just no way, they said he was dead!_ "A rogue...from my clan...?" She trailed off, hundreds of arguments going off at once within her mind before one singular focus point pulsed out from all the others. "Kiriu." The name left her in a low breath.

"Uh?" Michaelangelo pulled a puzzled but inquisitive look as he looked down at her.

Her eyes lifted up towards Michaelangelo briefly before meeting with the confused looks of the others. "It's possible. In fact, I feel like that's really dead on. _The faceless ones_ haven't been heard of for nearly fifty years, and it wasn't until about four years ago that the rumors of them being spotted surfaced. That's about the time, he left." Her gaze adverted to her right for a moment, a furrow forming across her forehead as her brows knitted at the center.

"He?" Casey scratched the back of his head. Sara had a bad habit of saying things like that without explaining anything else first, and it usually served to cause a small sense of confusion for him. "Who's this _he_?"

"Kiriu." Sara replied while looking over towards Casey. "He was apart of the three-man cell I trained with under my sensei back home in Japan. He was also my best friend. It was weird, as soon as the rumors of _the faceless_ started, he tried to leave the clan almost two months later. I tried to stop him, but we ended up fighting in an all out brawl against one another. While we were fighting, I realized he had changed. He was attacking me with the intent to kill me then and there. We went at each other one last time, and then all I remember was waking up in the infirmary. I was told that Kiriu was dead." She swallowed hard, forcing down the rumbling emotions that were bubbling beneath the surface of the story. "I think they lied to me."

"So, wait, you're saying that you best friend who turned around and tried to kill you and is possibly still alive, is more than likely the one supplying information about you as apart of _the faceless_?" Casey attempted to play connect the dots, frowning as it almost seemed rather illogical.

Sara shot him a rather brash look. "You have no problem what so ever accepting the fact that I have a nine-tailed demon-fox sealed inside of me like I'm some sort of human cage, and yet you can't believe that a former Haruno shinobi is the one now leading a band of rogue ninja?" The blank stare she received from him was enough of a response as Sara looked now to April. "What do you see in him?"

"Yo, that was low!" Casey shouted in defense of himself, hands tossing up into the air as he was shocked to even hear something like that come out of her mouth.

Rolling his eyes, Raphael shook his head while setting his attention anywhere but on the conversation at the moment.

"While this serves a valid stepping stone to discovering the identity of the one behind all of this, I believe it would be best to not over think things too much." Splinter interjected, cutting down whatever argument was about to ensue before it even got a decent foothold. "Sara-san," The aged master now turned his gaze upon Sara once more. "Do your parents know that you have been found out by both Foot and otherwise?"

Meeting Splinter's stare, Sara looked rather chagrined. "Yeah, uh, about that...they have no idea."

* * *

**Translations and Notes:**

**Kage:**Translated it means "shadow". The Kage is also the leader of the Haruno Clan, much like the _Hokage_ who is the leader of Konoha in the anime/manga series **_Naruto_** by Masashi Kishimoto.

**Jinchuriki:** Translated it means "Power of Human Sacrifice". Those whom within a demon is sealed. Sara is the _jinchuriki_ for the Kyuubi of Inari, the container in which the tailed-beast is sealed within. The term **jinchuriki** is found in the anime/manga series **_Naruto_** by Masashi Kishimoto.

**Haruno:** Translated it means "spring field". It is the family name of a ninja clan that Sara is from, and whom are guardians and keepers of secrets handed down by the _kami_ deity Inari.

**Inari:** Is the Japanese _kami_ of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry, and worldly success. Inari is represented as male, female, or androgynous; and uses fox spirits as his/her messangers.

**Tsunade:**Translated it means "mooring rope". Featured in the Japanese folktale _Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari_ (The tale of the gallant Jiraiya), she is the wife of the gallant ninja Jiraiya. She is mastered in slug magic and is able to summon an enormous slug. Sara is named after the same Tsuande of the folktale as her given Japanese birth name into the Haruno Clan.

**Haruno Saizo:** The ninja who was the _jinchuriki_ of the Kyuubi before Sara. His name is based on Kirigakure Saizo who is one of the Ten Heroes of Sanda and a legendary ninja of the Sengoku Period.

**Shiki Fuujin:** Translated it means "Corpse Spirit Sealing Method". It was used by Elder Fumio to pull the Kyuubi from Haruno Saizo by summoning a death god. It is also a Fuuinjutsu used in the anime/manga series **_Naruto_** by Masashi Kishimoto.

**Shishou Fuuin: **Translated it means "Four Image Seal". It was used by Elder Fumio to seal the Kyuubi within the infant Haruno Tsunade (Sara Reeve). It is also a Fuuinjutsu used in the anime/manga series **_Naruto_** by Masashi Kishimoto.

**Hakke no Fuuin Shiki:** Translated it means "Eight Divination Signs Seal Style". It was used by Elder Fumio to seal the Kyuubi within the infant Haruno Tsunade (Sara Reeve) in conjunction with Shishou Fuuin. It is also a Fuuinjutsu used in the anime/manga series **_Naruto_** by Masashi Kishimoto.

**Kyuubi:**Translated it means "Nine-tails". The Kyuubi is a demon-fox of unknown origin and background that possess nine-tails and is sealed within a _jinchuriki_ by the decree of Inari.

**Jiraiya:** Translated it means "young thunder". The title character of the Japanese folktale _Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari_ (The tale of the gallant Jiraiya), is a ninja who uses shape-shifting magic to morph into a gigantic toad. The heir of a powerful clan in Kyushu of the same name, Jiraiya fell in love with Tsunade, a beautiful young princess who masters snail magic. Haruno Jiraiya is named after this legendary ninja.

(Further and more in-depth information can be found on on each of the listed names of individuals mentioned in this chapter. Further information on the jutsu used can be found at Complete information on the legend of the tailed-beasts and the Kyuubi can be found at forums. for whatever reason the names of the websites and link do not show up in this note, please send me a message and I will e-mail them to you!)


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven  
Juxtaposition**

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_"They don't understand what it is to be awake, to be living on several planes at once. Though one cannot speak with several voices at once."_ - **T.S. Eliot**

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__

If it was even possible, the door to the underground home (or lair as a few from the topside had come to start calling it) flew open, a panicked looking Casey Jones standing in the door way for a moment. His dark eyes darted back and forth across the large open expanse before him that melted together living room, dining room, and game area together in a rather loft sort of way you normally saw in the trendy apartments in near Greenwich Village. With one double take, his gaze landed on five pairs of eyes that stared at him from directly across the room. Focusing immediately upon the female of the group, Casey dashed for her, surprising everyone at how fast he could move when motivated to do so by unknown reasons.

Sliding up to the grey-eyed girl who had been in the process of whipping out a rather impressive beat down through the arcade game she was playing, he grabbed her by the shoulders and stared her straight in the eye. "Sara! You're a girl right?!" His tone of voice bordered right on the edge of frantic.

"Uhh, the last time I checked, yeah." Sara stared at him with a rather wide-eyed and stunned look on her face.

From behind her, Michaelangelo and Donatello snickered while exchanging grins with one another. Even Raphael couldn't help but smirk from his place in front of the TV along with Leonardo. All four boys earned a rather quick snapped glare from Sara before Casey shook her by the shoulders, and started to ramble off a torrent of a quickly spoken concern.

"You gotta help me out here kiddo! Aprils' birthday is coming up and I don't know what to get her! She keeps saying she doesn't want anything, but I know that's bogus, you girls always want something even when you say you don't! All we loving men want to do is please you girls, and all you do is torment us with your twisted logic and riddles!! Why?! Why do you do this to us?!" The stress was quite evident.

Blinking a few times, Sara couldn't help but feel like a flood victim at that moment; _It all happened so fast. Just, woosh, all gone. _"Uh... we're sorry?"

Looking at one another with a blank look, Michaelangelo and Donatello burst into a fit of laughter as the whole scene was just way too funny. Leonardo chuckled, especially since he happened to have a better view of the dumbfounded look on Sara's face as Casey flipped out on her.

"Maybe if you tried speaking at a much more slower speed, then perhaps Sara-san would not look so much like a deer caught in the headlights." Splinter chuckled as he appeared from the dojo and moved on into the kitchen to fetch himself a cup of tea he had been brewing.

"Yeah, what Splinter said!" Sara nodded in agreement with what the elder sensei said while wriggling out of Caseys' hold on her shoulders. "And why you blaming a bunch of stuff on me anyways? I haven't even started dating anyone yet to be accounted for in that circle of torture you just outlined!" She snapped while jabbing a finger against his chest to back him up.

Running a hand through his hair and grinning sheepishly, Casey shrugged. "Sorry kiddo, I'm just stressed out."

Eying him for a moment, head inclined as if to give him a judgmental look, Sara exhaled an exasperated sigh before folding her arms over her chest and nodding. "Apology accepted. Now, how do you want me to help you?"

As if some sort of huge weight had been taken off his shoulders, Caseys' eyes lit up as he grabbed Sara in a huge bear hug and spun her about. "Oh my god you're a total lifesaver princess! I owe you big time!" He grinned while setting her back down on the ground, oblivious to the fact that she was swaying just a tad from having her world up heaved and sent through the spin-cycle.

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say Casey." Sara mumbled while trying to shake the dizzy spell from her head before the room got anymore swirled and abstract in its coloring. "Just promise me you won't ever do that whole pick me and spin me thing ever again." Regaining her sense of balance wasn't at all hard, it was just a bit annoying to have that feeling of not being steady on her feet. As Casey opened his mouth to say something, Sara made it a point to set her index and middle finger from her right hand against the middle of his forehead, stopping him cold. "I'm serious."

"Okay, okay; spin the Sara and be maimed, got it." Casey rolled his eyes while swatting her fingers away. "So you guys really busy right now?" He glanced over the top of her head at the two turtles brothers who were still laughing and had to now lean against one another just to stay on their feet.

Glancing back over her shoulder, a flat glare pulling her mouth into a frown, Sara looked back to Casey. "Not any more apparently." She sighed. "When is Aprils' birthday anyways?"

"Tomorrow?" Casey winced a grin as he could already see the unamused look coming across her features before she glanced over to Leonardo just to confirm this.

Giving her a sympathetic look, Leonardo nodded. "Sorry Sara, Aprils' birthday is tomorrow." The loud _smack_ of a hand hitting forehead caused the eldest of the four brothers to pull a rather chagrined look.

"_Baka jin_." Sara grumbled while pulling her hand from her forehead. Mumbling something else in Japanese under her breath, she pushed passed Casey and headed for the door.

"Right on Casey, you actually got her muttering in Japanese." Donatello laughed while giving the former hockey player two thumbs up. "She only does that when she's annoyed with something. Normally I've heard it only when she's playing a game against me and Mikey."

Casey gave the purple masked turtle a short glare. "Good to know Donny, thanks for that man."

"Hey! You coming or not?!" Sara shouted from the door, scarf flying about her neck after retrieving it from the hook to her right. "I'd be more than happy to let April scalp ya alive!"

"Oh! Oh! I wanna come to!" Michaelangelo cried out while scrambling around Donatello and rushing up beside Casey, a hopeful look glittering in his big blue eyes. "Can I? I haven't been able to get April anything yet."

A grunt found its way from Raphael as he twisted on the couch to look back at his youngest brother, amber eyes set in a slight glare. "And just how do you plan on doing that? I don't know if you've noticed or not Mikey, but we don't exactly blend into a crowd."

"Your brother is right Michaelangelo." Splinter approached from his place in the kitchen where he had been observing the on goings in his home. "I am afraid I cannot let you go with Casey and Sara-san."

"Yeah, but!" Michaelangelo began to protest to the restriction, gaze darting towards Sara in hopes that she could help him out. There was a rather odd look on her face, it sort of reminded him of that spaced out look Donatello would get while listening to the endless mind-numbing chatter of customers calling on the tech support lines for help with their simple computer problems. For a moment, Michaelangelo felt his hopes in being aided by his friend sink. Until...

"Master Splinter," Sara turned her gaze to the aged teacher, whose gaze alighted in response to her addressing of him. "I sort of have an idea."

"Why are we here again?" Casey coughed, hands waving about to clear away the wispy streams of floating smoke that choked the air of an already small shop. The deep rich smells of several spices and herbs assaulted his sense of smell so much it started to cause his eyes to water just a little. His question was directed towards the teen girl who had led him into the small little shop stuck between two rather towering monoliths of a building-like structure that had seen better days no doubt.

Sara cast a baleful glance back over her shoulder at the former hockey pro. "Because _you _asked for my help, because_ you _were incapable of getting April a birthday present before the day of said event." She hissed, eyes narrowing just enough to prove her point of him shutting up with the smart remarks.

Holding his hands up in a gesture of submission, Casey offered her a grin before glancing about at the various open shelves and bookcase like structures that loomed up around them in a sort of organized cluttered mess. Everything anyone ever wanted of Asian influence seemed to be crammed into every available space. Colored jars in an assortment of shapes and sizes were labeled with near ancient looking labels that held what looked like both English and either Chinese or Japanese (which one Casey was oblivious to). Lifting a brow at a small squat brown jar labeled **Dragon Blood**, Casey couldn't help but smirk. _After everything I've seen and been through, I wouldn't doubt it at this point. _He would have chuckled, but that might have ended up with him receiving another unwanted glare shot his way.

"Hey, Casey, do you know what April's favorite color might be?" Sara asked as she paused in front of a shelving unit with both crystal carvings, bonsai trees fashioned out of twisted copper wiring and colored quartz.

He shrugged. "I think it's yellow, maybe gold." He murmured while looking over the other jars beside the Dragon Blood. "Hey, what's all this by the way?" He gestured with a wave of his hand at the jars while glancing over to the teen.

"Ingredients for medicines." Sara grinned while coming up beside Casey. "Dragon Blood is supposed to be a cure all for every and any illness and disease. In some stories, it can even bring the dead back to life." Her eyes stared hard upon the labeled jar, a glimmer lighting across those grey orbs momentarily. "But they're just stories."

"Just stories?" Casey looked down at her with a raised brow. "Why does that sound so incredibly weird coming out of your mouth?" He grinned.

A punch hit Casey straight in the upper arm before Sara turned on her heel and walked off around the corner of another shelf. Grumbling under her breath, Sara shook her head while glancing off to her right to look over what items lined the shelves now. What sounded like a snicker snaked its way into her hearing and brought a pulled unamused look over her face. "It wasn't funny." She mumbled.

"_Says you. But Casey did have a pretty good point; it does sound weird hearing you say something like that."_ The tone of Michelangelo's voice suggested he was grinning.

"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!" Sara hissed while clutching a hand over her right ear, where under the fall of her long shoulder length hair an ear piece was slipped over. A laugh could be heard off in the background and she automatically pinned it down as Donatello. "I heard that!" The lower level of another snicker followed and all she could do was simply roll her eyes. "All right enough already, just tell me what you guys want to get April so we can get this done and over with."

"_Well, so long as you don't get the jar of Dragon Blood, I think we'll be okay."_ Donatello chuckled over the line. _"Although it is the thought that counts. Giving someone a gift that supposed to cure illness and bring back the dead, does say a lot."_

Sara was ready to snap back a rather smartass comeback to that little quip when Leonardo's voice cut in at the last second. _"Don't listen to those two Sara. Most of the stuff in that store looks right up April's alley anyways. If I see something, I'll let you know." _The relative cool, calm, and collected voice of the eldest brother seemed to smooth out the ruffled feathers as usual.

It seemed a bit odd, but Leonardo often reminded Sara of her sensei back home in Japan. Maybe it was the way in which he spoke, or just the fact he seemed to be in control at all times of himself and his own actions, while still acting his age off and on; but even still, his words dismissed the riled look that had crept over Sara at that moment. Running a hand through her hair, and emitting a small cough as if to clear her throat, the evident pink hue of some sort of embarrassment rising across the top of her cheeks caused her to turn her back to the store front windows. "Whatever." She mumbled while attempting to look interested in what appeared to be another collection of supposed antiquities.

Off across the street, almost directly across from that small little store that Casey and Sara had gone off into, the four turtle brothers crouched behind the lifted lip of a four story rooftop. They had their eyes glued to the windows of the small store, a set of high powered binoculars being passed between Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo; while Raphael opted to merely keep his back to the store.

Through the use of Sara's own cellphone and two bluetooth pieces that Donatello had rigged up to link back to the same cellphone, there was an available means for Michelangelo to accompany Sara and Casey. Donatello of course wanted in on the little venture out, and Leonardo followed along as well as he both wanted to make sure things didn't turn for the worse and to grab a present for April as well. Not exactly wanting to be left behind, Raphael tagged along with a less than positive attitude like his brothers. And thus, the reason all four brothers were up on the roof trying to pick out a present from either one of them via Sara and Casey.

"_Dude, what's that thing right next to you on the right?" _Michelangelo's voice lifted through the ear piece, causing Sara to look into the given direction and lift a brow.

Sitting on the shelf just to her right, was a deep cherry wood colored piece that reminded her of the stand you normally saw showcasing a samurai's replicated sword, held what looked like a long wooden case of some sorts that was held closed with a single thin red cord. Curious now as to what this was, Sara stepped towards it, a hand reaching out as if she meant to lift it up from its stand. There was something akin to a pulse of electricity that vibrated from her inner being. It caused her to hesitate; hand hanging in mid-air as if she were unsure as to whether or not to continue forward. That strange feeling of an electrical pulse made its presence yet again making the hairs on the back of Sara's neck stand up.

_That cannot be a good sign. _Sara's brow furrowed as her initial thoughts reasoned against her curiosity. However, the latter tended to win out at the end of every self-argument, and thusly her hand moved forward again. The very tips of her fingers brushed against the smooth polished surface before they finally curled about to take hold of this mysterious object. Once full contact with it had been made, Sara's body froze. Stock still she stood with wide eyes as that same odd pulse vibrated out through her, and now it felt more like the vibration one felt when something large growled. The pulse faded quickly, leaving the teen to continue staring with wide eyes at the object still sitting up on its stand with her hand curled about it.

"_Hey, you still there?" _Michaelangelo's voice cut through whatever jumble of thoughts that were clogging Sara's mind and snapped her back into reality.

"Uh, yeah! Yeah, I'm still here Mikey." She murmured in assurance to her friend while picking the object up off its stand. With both hands she held it for a moment, staring at the smooth wood finish that seemed to hold no traces of dust upon it whatsoever unlike the other things clustered about its stand. Unwinding the red cord that had been twisted about a single gold plated oval shaped button of sorts, Sara stepped back from the shelf just a bit as she found that the two sides of whatever she had were able to slide apart from one another. Slowly, she she slid the two wood pieces away from one another.

As if triggered by just the mere sight of what was between the two carefully polished pieces of wood, the look in Sara's grey eyes changed. A vibrant blue started to seep out from the very edge of her pupils, crawling out towards the dark ring that surrounded the iris. There was a look of malice in her eyes that flickered to life; but she remained seemingly unaware of the change, as if the reaction were not her own. From in between the slowly separated pieces, the dark black feathers of some large bird were revealed; glistening in the dim light streaming through the dusty front windows. There was a reddish tint to the edge of the feathers that glittered when caught at the perfect angle by the light.

They were indeed rather large feathers. Seven feathers to be exact as Sara opened the fan all the way. They almost seemed to be the longest wing feathers you could pluck off a bird as their sheer size seemed to match that with the span of Sara's hand. Each feather had to be at least a foot long from end to end, or at least that was the best Sara could summarize in an estimate. There was something about the fan though that was starting to give her a very unnerving feel. Her face twisted into a small grimace as she looked the fan over carefully, so as not to tear the feathers.

A small breeze slowly stirred, ruffling the ends of the feathers in a teasing manner. Sara glanced off towards the door of the small store, wondering if someone had walked in and the outside air had rushed through as an explanation for the slight chill that crept over her. Strangely enough, the door was closed, the small bell hanging over the frame unmoving and soundless. And yet... that same breeze continued to lift through that small aisle she stood in. Sara turned her attention from the door, eyes shifting to look at the fan once more.

Only...

The store was gone, the cramped little aisle replaced by damp mist covered earth littered with dead and rotting leaves from maple and oak trees that seemed to surrounded her on every which side her darting glance attempted to penetrate. Glimpses of dull sunlight streamed through the gnarled and twisted fingers of skeletal tree limbs that had all but lost their leaves. Squinting up towards the point where most of the light seemed to be coming from, Sara could barely make out the dark shape of a monolithic _torii _looming up over her and casting a rather long sinister shadow over her.

The blue that had been working its way towards consuming the given grey she had been born with, was near the point of consumption. Closing her eyes briefly as if hoping that once they reopened she would be back in that tiny aisle in the little hole in the wall antique store, a shadow crept in across her brow as her gaze snapped open; a brilliant cobalt blue gleaming in place of the grey.

In the air above the mammoth _torii, _the air twisted inward upon itself as if a whirlpool had formed, tightening towards the center before one deep inward heave pushed out and the monstrous shadow of some winged thing appeared with a murderous scream that sounded like a thousand crows calling out at once, before it darted down at her with remarkable speed.

Her heart raced with the sense of panic, but something else seemed to take over at the moment as her muscles tightened in preparation for the incoming attack. Her hands twitched with the eager sensation of ripping into the feather and flesh. As if fire had sprung upon her skin, her nerves roared with the agony of living fire spreading across her body as a dark red liquid seeped up out of her skin, gliding down her limbs and even out across her young face twisted in a snarl.

As if cued by the next scream uttered from the winged thing, Sara felt her body lung forward with hands extending out as if they were claws. Mere inches from the horrific clash that was sure to ensue, a blinding white light popped before her eyes and engulfed her tortured body.

Blinking only once, Sara found her gaze staring straight ahead at the dusty little shelf she had taken the fan from. A slow look of confusion started to overtake the expression of her face as she glanced about the cramped two foot wide aisle. _What the hell was that?! _

"_Sara? Yo, you zone out on us or what?" _Michaelangelo's voice broke over her hearing, bringing her attention to him and away from whatever had just... happened.

"Sort of. Sorry." She murmured while looking down at the fan still in open in her hands. The feathers were still, as if the small breeze had never existed in the first place. Folding the fan back together carefully, Sara rewound the strong about the clasp and quickly set back up on its display stand.

"I see we have a curious mind wandering about the aisles." An older male voice spoke up from somewhere off near the far end of the aisle Sara stood within. The voice belonged to a rather elderly looking man of Asian ethnicity; deep wrinkles having formed about the outside corners of his eyes and across his brow. A pair of thin wire rimmed glasses were perched almost upon the very tip of his nose. He shuffled down the aisle chuckling under his breath in response to the rather dumb struck look on Sara's face. "That fan you were looking at, it's very old with many many secrets wrapped up beneath that cord." He spoke in a soft but firm voice that was heavily tinted by a Japanese accent.

Glancing from the old man standing before her now, Sara stared at the fan for a few seconds before looking to the man again with a silent response she couldn't quite get out of her throat.

Again he chuckled while waving her off. "No need, little one." He stated while then gesturing towards the fan with a nod of his head. "I would have said you appeared captivated by that piece, but then I would be lying." He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, noting the steely look in her eyes that contrasted sharply against her befuddled facial expression. "I found that fan some near forty years ago when I was still living back home in Japan, before came over to America. There's a legend surrounding that fan, dating back some near thousand years or so. Bits and pieces of the legend are missing, but apparently this fan belonged to the King of Mount Kurama."

The look on Sara's face faltered, the appearances of confusion twisting into a mix of what seemed like realization and hidden fear mingled within anger. A glint in her eyes caught the old man's attention, who merely gave her a smile before turning away and shuffling his way back down the aisle, leaving the teen to stare after him in silence.

"_...okay, that was weird." _Donatello muttered over the line as he exchanged a look with Leonardo; who seemed to agree with that statement completely.

"_Weird, Donny? No, no. Try more like creepy to the max." _Michaelangelo corrected his brother.

While still staring after the now long departed old man, Sara's gaze hardened for a moment before she turned away and walked off down the opposite end of the aisle looking for Casey.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve  
Legendary Games**

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_**Spandam:** "Shoot her! Shoot her to death without killing her!!"  
**Marines:** "HUH??!!"_  
**Water 7/Enies Lobby Arc; One Piece**

* * *

Grey eyes stared up the darkened sky above, counting tiny pin pricks of twinkling silver that winked back at an unblinking stare. It was an attempt to try and count the endless expanse of millions upon billions of stars far far out of reach to mere mortal hands; an attempt that lasted only a few seconds before grey eyes blinked back into focus down upon the plane of earthbound reality to stare across a sea of uneven roof heights and the extending protrusions that collaborated together in the formation of a makeshift urban training-ground.

Sara surveyed the darkened playground before her with unblinking eyes as she had been trained to do for the past ten years. Evenly paced breaths escaped through her nose only as she sat crouched behind a stub of a brick chimney top, back pressed up against the chill brick and mortar as she had stowed herself away within the shadows. Concealment was part of the basics that had been grounded into her under the tutelage of her sensei, and her grandfather; thusly it had become utter instinct for the young ninja... even if it was because she was playing an odd sort of tag/hide-and-go-seek combination game with four turtles brothers.

Scanning from left to right, Sara's gaze doubled back immediately as she caught sight of possible movement near the faint outline of an AC unit. _Did one of them just duck back behind it? _Her brows creased as she narrowed her eyes on the spot in question, squinting into the dark. Mentally, Sara growled out of impatience while quietly adjusting her position. Pushing her back off the brick chimney, Sara crept out from her hiding place, keeping low to the smooth surface of the flat apartment building roof.

The objective that night, after having dealt with the torment of taking Casey Jones birthday present shopping and being deeply disturbed by the words of some small feeble shopkeeper, was to have a little fun while taking the time to incorporate the concept of training; as was instructed by Master Splinter through Leonardo. When the boys were at a loss as to how they should train or even where to start with a new sparring partner in Sara, it was Sara who suggested the idea of an old "ninja-game" she played back home in Japan with her fellow Genin. A distant spot was chosen at random and marked as _'base'_and each participating ninja was given a colored cord (or whatever was handy at the moment; in this case ribbons that Sara had bought at the antique store). The goal of the game was to reach_'base'_ first before everyone else with at least one other cord that wasn't yours.

While the game was indeed liked by the four brothers, Leonardo suggested an augmentation to one part of the game. Since all **five **were going to be training with one another from now on, as was the request of Splinter, the idea of having Sara the only one with a cord in possession and attempting to outsmart and outdo himself and his brothers, was proposed.

"_Think of it as a way for us to see your abilities and you seeing ours in actual movement rather than routine."_

The idea was accepted, and for the passed twenty minutes Sara had managed to out maneuver the four brothers thus far and of course still held in her possession the two pale yellow ribbons (also Leonardo's idea). The distance between her and the large blank backside of some billboard Michelangelo had picked nearly eight blocks away, had closed to about three and a half blocks covered by the Haruno ninja.

Smirking briefly to herself, Sara edged forward towards the lip of the roof, eyes peeled for the slightest change in the shadows. Hesitating a few seconds just a foot from the roof edge, she cast a quick glance about before springing forward with full force to cover the four foot gap that separated her from the next building across the way. Landing on the other roof edge with a soft step and pushing forward again all in the same motion, Sara caught the darting movement of another form from the corner of her right eye. Gritting her teeth in response to the obvious miscalculation she had taken, misjudging what was possibly false movement further ahead of the roof edge and not seeing what had been right in front of her.

The first step forward had the brakes slammed down hard as Sara used her own momentum in a badly forced back pedal that sent pieces of tarred down gravel popping up from under her sneaker. Cursing under her breath in Japanese as she felt the heel of her foot catch the edge behind her, a hand automatically shot backwards to brace for the fall and even attempt to redirect misfortune in her favor.

Donatello watched with a mixed look of sudden panic and even annoyance to the fact that he had been spotted and dodged, but the sudden panic in his look was not without reason as Sara toppled backwards over the six-story roof edge. Giving a startled cry as he lunged forward to catch her by the wrist or even her hand, Donatello felt his blood run cold as all he snatched back was empty air.

A fall from six-stories would have been awfully painful of course, resulting more than likely with many a broken bone and horrible pain all around in both physical and metaphorical senses. But luckily enough for Sara, a fall from six-stories was something she wouldn't experience just yet. The start of the plummet over the roof edge, her head had immediately snapped back to survey what options and uses of the terrain were open to her. Somehow luck just seemed to be on her side that night as the alleyway she was currently descending through was the sort with the haphazard crossing clotheslines strung out from one fire escape to the next across the way.

Forcing her body into into a flip that brought her body in a righted position; a smart pop to the front of her head as she skimmed the metal handrail of a fire escape she would of struck anyways in a far more horrid manner, and Sara's entire body weight landed upon the third clothesline down, coming to settle in a shaky crouch with arms out stretched to either side and held level with her shoulders. The already taunt cord that was used, squealed as it was forced down beneath more weight than what it was used to. Finding her balance as her fall ended with quite possibly the quickest and maybe even dumbest save, Sara exhaled a relieved breath before glancing down at the rest of the fall she missed out on.

"Damn... that would have really been bad." Her eyes lifted as she could only imagine just how bad it would have been. Shivering at the thought, Sara turned her gaze upwards towards the roof top she had fallen from and noticed the green face staring down at her with an utterly dumbfounded and exasperated look slapped upon it. Lifting a hand to wave at the turtle she had probably given a heart-attack to, Sara called up at him. "I'm okay Don!"

"Geez!" Donatello released the sharply sucked breath he had penned up, and slumped forward while rubbing the back of his head. "I swear my own life flashed before my eyes!"

Chuckling in a sheepish manner, Sara of course felt incredibly foolish in the fact that she had almost gotten herself mangled all on her own. _Oh, sensei would be letting me have it right now if he was here. God, I would never hear the end of it for a good three months straight from that man. _Sara felt her brow twitch at the distant echo of her sensei's laughter that had been (unfortunately) etched permanently into her memory. Exhaling a sigh, she stood up from the strained crouch she had come to rest within after landing on her very scarce platform. The clothesline squealed again in response to the shift in weight, the very sound causing Sara to wince while begging through mental thought for the line not to snap on her.

Pausing a moment to make sure things were secure while also reasoning if she didn't take the chance now, she would more than likely be monkey climbing her way back up the side of the building to return to the top. "Here goes nothing then." Came a murmured shrug from the teen girl as she pushed all of her weight down as she crouched one more time and forced her leg muscles to tighten in a tense bunch of stored power that was ready to be sprung as soon as she moved an inch forward. Swinging her right arm behind her back while the left crossed in front of her, Sara took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally within the next two seconds.

Donatello watched Sara with rather perked interest, cringing at the strained sound of the wire clothesline bending dipping further under the human girl's weight. Lifting a brow, Donatello leaned a bit further over the edge of the building to get a better view as Sara crouched again. Two seconds later Donatello's face pulled into a taken back sort of startled grimace as he pedaled backwards away from the roof edge as Sara's small frame shot up towards him like some rocketed projectile.

The young ninja of the Haruno Clan passed the roof edge and continued another several feet into the dark night sky overhead. Another passing second and the light feeling that appeared with the transition of going up and coming down sent a flutter through her stomach briefly before she saw that Donatello looked rather pleased with the fact that she was about to land with little to no room to actually dodge and keep the cords in her possession out of his reach. Without so much as a second thought, Sara brought her two hands together and formed the several seals necessary to activate one her favorite jutsu --- **"Kage Bunshin!" **With several bursts of smoke, two identical dopplegangers appeared, one on either side of Sara.

"Why didn't I see that coming?!" Donatello hissed under his breath while yanking the bo staff out from the leather harness strapped across his shell. With a long time practiced twirl of the wooden weapon, Donatello prepared himself for whatever scuffle was about to ensue with three of the same girl coming down at him.

However, the moment before all three touched ground, the two dopplegangers clutched their hands together in a cupped manner as Sara tucked her legs and feet up as if she were jumping. As soon as her feet and their hands met, Sara held her low crouch and waited for the next second to come. The feet of the dopplegangers came down on the tarred gravel rooftop, their upper bodies coming down in a manner that caused them to crouch low before standing up straight quickly and tossing their arms up and out at an angle as they slung their creator and support system forward.

_She used them to springboard herself over me! _Donatello's gaze widened for a brief moment as he turned his head up to watch as Sara performed a forward flip over him, and for a moment felt a rather odd sense of annoyance as he caught sight of a smirk on his friend's face. The attempt to take the cords she had in her possession was obviously not going to happen as Donatello was forced to turn his attention towards the two dopplegangers coming at him in a full speed dead run.

With long time practiced moves Donatello pulled the bo staff out of the leather harness strapped across his chest and around his shell; with one single skilled twirl of the bo staff, Donatello held the wooden weapon out before him in a horizontal position in order to push back the dopplegangers that were now two steps from him. One doppleganger swung up their right foot in a sideways kick, while the other jumped forward with left foot being lifted up high overhead for a downward heel drop. Both physical attacks were caught and held by the bo staff, but Donatello was finding that the power behind both blows was a bit more than he had expected.

Sara landed in an expert crouch a few feet behind Donatello, the gravel of the rooftop crunched deafly under the soles of her sneakers before grinding as the teen pushed off in a way a runner would from a starting block. In her sprint forward she took a chance to glance back over her shoulder for all but four seconds to see how well her dopplegangers were holding up against the bo staff wielding turtle. The smirk on her face grew a bit more as she watched the dopplegangers stave off Donatello's chase after her that would have come had she not acted as she had.

Turning her attention forward, Sara continued to run towards the building edge on her way towards the billboard that still sat some five and a half blocks ahead still. Once her foot hit the edge, she shot forward and seemingly vanished as though she were a mere mirage in the parched air of the desert. Half way across the next building rooftop she reappeared on the very top of a small water silo before vanishing again in the same manner as before. Again she appeared on another rooftop, feet touching ground for not even a second before she was gone within the blink of an eye once more.

The young ninja was moving fast, faster than she had originally intended at the start of the exercise and was covering ground much quicker and closed down another three blocks before she paused long enough to stow herself off within the shadows alongside a small utility shed on the top of an apartment building. Sara was panting now, forcing herself to slow her breathing switch over to controlled deep breaths to quiet her pounding heart down and gain some sort of control of her slightly shaking body. _Damn, I forgot how much that the Shunpo no Jutsu takes out of you. I probably wouldn't be this out of the breath if I hadn't used it right after using the Kage Bunshin. _The back of Sara's head met the old wood of the utility shed with a dull thud as she slid down into a sitting position as her legs were beginning to quiver from the strenuous use they had been put through.

Her breathing started to slow, the shaking in her body having all but disappeared as something in her system seemed to kick in and take over control. The muscles in her legs relaxed, the bunched tight feeling from all the jumping and running that had stressed out the trained limbs was gone and Sara was pushing herself back up to her feet. The left corner of her mouth pulled down in a sort of unhappy grimace as she knew why she had recovered so quickly. _I don't know whether or not I should be thankful or annoyed by it. The Kyuubi being locked away inside of me is what accelerates my rate of healing ad recovery from fatigue, but it also makes me wonder... if it wasn't for the Kyuubi, would I be anywhere near the same strength I am now on my own?_

Both hands hung at her sides, fingers curling in towards the palm and forming a fist as she attempted to clamp down on her own self-doubts and annoyance at the moment towards that one single thought. Shaking her head, Sara unclenched her fists and peeked out from behind the utility shed to quickly scan the area for either of the other three brothers she had yet to encounter. "Well, I can't stand here all night just watching shadows." The self murmur escaped from her as she pulled back and set her back up against the aged wood yet again. Several ideas filtered through her mind at that moment before she took a deep breath and ran out from her hiding place to continue across the rooftop.

Not even half way across the rooftop, Sara was blindsided by another bigger body that slammed sideways into her from the left, tossing her from her feet and sent her on a rolling tumble towards a cluster of water pipes banded down by thick metal straps bolting them to the concrete building. Her roll ended with her slamming into the pipes with her left shoulder taking the brunt of the impact. Choking back a bitter cry from the intense pain that darted up her arm at that moment, Sara pushed herself up into a sitting position while trying to clear the spinning sensation from her head.

"Dude, Raph, was that really necessary?" Michelangelo frowned as he joined his smirking older brother who stood with arms crossed over his chest as if he was rather proud of himself. There was a look that twisted across Michelangelo's face that looked like both annoyance for his brother's overkill actions and remorse for the fact that his friend looked like a kicked puppy at that moment with a hand to her head and a hand to her hurting shoulder.

Raphael glanced over at his brother with a rather sharp look as he prepared to defend himself, knowing Leonardo was about shoot him down any second. "Hey! This was her and Leo's idea remember!? Besides, she's a _ninja _remember? She'll get over it." While speaking, Raphael made it a point not to even say Sara's name while casting a lifted look towards her, smirking yet again at the gritted look on her face as she pushed herself up to her feet.

"Mikey's right Raph." Leonardo cut in as he appeared next with a disapproving look on his face. This in turn caused Raphael to shoot his older brother a scowl right back in return before muttering something under his breath as he turned away. Shaking his head, Leonardo was about to turn his attention to Sara, but from the corner of his eye he caught sight of a rather confused look on Michelangelo's face. "Mikey?" Leonardo turned his attention to his youngest brother, but was cut off as Michelangelo pointed quickly towards the spot where Sara had tumbled to. Following the gesture, Leonardo choked back a startled sense of surprise as his amber gaze fell on an empty spot that was completely void of a teen girl's more than likely scowling presence. "Where'd she - ?"

"Took off while we were talking, eh?" Raphael lifted an amused brow while casting his gaze on the same empty spot his two brothers stared at. "Gotta give the girl her props for taking advantage of that, but I expected more out of her since she's supposed to be her clan leader's granddaughter." He shook his head as though he were truly disappointed that Sara had taken off, but at the same time he smirked at that fact as well.

Leonardo shot his rather arrogant acting brother a warning glare, which seconds later fell to a look of confused surprise as the glint of something metal flickered about Raphael. _What the...? Why does that look familiar?! _His question was immediately answered as that something metal snapped taunt and trapped Raphael's arms in their place across his chest. "Wire!"

"What the he-?" The sentence never saw a verbal finish as Raphael was jerked backwards by a pull of the wires that ensnared him. His two brothers watched as he managed to keep himself from hitting the ground by kicking with his right foot and twisted his body sideways in order to reclaim ground instead of being dragged across the rough and unforgiving concrete rooftop.

What happened next shocked not only Leonardo and Michelangelo, but sent a startled snap back to reality through Raphael as a fist collided with the side of his jaw and toppled the bigger turtle right off his feet, which in turn sent him rolling across and right into the same pipes Sara had collided with after being ambushed.

Michelangelo stared with wide eyes. At that moment, he couldn't quite recall the last time he had seen someone take Raphael down like that with one punch, especially a girl; to which he quickly summarized to mean that Raphael had successfully succeeded in pissing Sara off with his manner of take-down he utilized on her. Glancing away from Raphael, who was in the middle of groaning out his displeasure to being hit and thrown into pipes; Michelangelo looked back over his shoulder at the narrow-eyed stare that radiated from his friend in a visible warning to his older brother.

Raphael grunted his annoyance while freeing himself from the wire he had been entrapped within, and while standing to his feet, yanked the twin Sais hanging within the leather belt about his waist. "Princess, that was a big mistake."

"My only mistake was not hitting you harder." Sara growled while falling back into an awaiting offensive stance. "Or even following up immediately after getting you on the ground."

There almost seemed to be a fire burning in Raphael's gaze as he locked eyes with the smaller teenager. "Not much of a ninja then are you?" He sneered while twirling his hand-held weapons once before dashing forward. In response, Sara darted forward as well with the same amount of intent that Raphael displayed of physical harm on the other.

Sensing the possible horrible outcome that was about to ensue, Leonardo swiftly nodded at Michelangelo, who nodded back and both darted in opposite directions towards the angered charges. Catching Raphael's right wrist and twisting it around and back behind his back, Leonardo promptly kicked his brother in the back of the knee with enough force to get him on the ground. Michelangelo slid up in front of Sara and stretched out his arms, locking his elbows as his open palms met the front of her shoulders; putting all his weight on his feet, Michelangelo acted more as a barricade rather than using a take-down on her.

"Alright you two, that's enough!" Leonardo snapped, the serious command in his tone taking over. "This is supposed to be a simple evasion and ambush exercise, not some all out brawl that ends up with both of you being carried back home!" He met Raphael's accusing glare with his own burning amber star that dared him to even say a word in argument at this point before switching his stare to the agitated stare peeking out from over Michelangelo's shoulder. "Now both you need to cool your jets before we even think about continuing with this exercise." Leonardo looked between the two as he spoke, holding the authoritative stare he was known for well in place upon his face.

Michelangelo watched Sara's jaw clench from a sideways glance, a near morose look on his face as he could only begin to think what Raphael would have done to her, and she to him. "Sara you okay?" Michelangelo's brow furrowed as he kept his voice low as he wanted the conversation to be between them only at this point.

"No I'm not okay Mikey." She hissed through her teeth while keeping her grey-eyed stare on the red masked turtle who was still attempting to shoot daggers at her through his own burning gaze. Her eyes now darted towards her friend. "What's Raphael's problem anyways; sideswiping me like that?!"

Glancing back over his shoulder, Michelangelo sighed as he watched Leonardo reprimand Raphael for a brief moment before returning his gaze to Sara. "I don't know." He exhaled a heavy sigh while dropping his hands from her shoulders. "I don't get it either, and I'm his brother." Michelangelo attempted to offer a joking smile as he spoke, but instead of it coming naturally it appeared forced.

A furrow creased over Sara's brow as she lifted one brow and scrunched the other down. She hadn't known Michelangelo for very long, but she had gotten to know the youngest of the four brothers well enough to notice the difference in how he tried to joke with her just now versus other times before hand. Her eyes shifted slightly from Michelangelo to his brothers behind him; Leonardo had finally let Raphael up and was continuing to lecture him. The words of the lecture never reached Sara's ears as Leonardo made it a point to keep his voice low, but she had a relatively good idea as to what was being said, more or less.

A gruff exhale escaped through her nose as she directed her sight down off to her left. There was something about what had just happened that brought up an unsettled feeling in Sara that hobbled around the terrain of a past memory. Her brow furrowed deeper as she stared at the rooftop concrete, memories from her training with the three-man cell she had been set up with upon becoming a Genin bubbling to the forefront of her thoughts. Hadn't the first time they all trained together turned out like this as well?

Kiriu had done almost the exact same thing to her, blindsiding her in an unnecessarily rough manner that had her rolling head long into the trunk of some huge tree where she landed upside down, but not before whacking her head a few times along the way and catching several scraps here and there. Kiriu's excuse had been near word for word with Raphael's --- _"She's a ninja isn't she? She'll get over it. Besides, enemy ninja won't play nice just because she's a girl. She's gotta toughen up sooner or later!"_

Their sensei popped Kiriu in the head for that remark and labeled him 'the thoughtless loudmouth of the group'. Leonardo had taken Raphael down and then lectured him right after. The right corner of Sara's mouth twisted up in the start of a bitter smile. _It's almost exactly like before; except I'm dealing with a mutated turtle who has his shell all up in a twist over something. _Sara glanced up momentarily at Raphael, who looked less than interested in Leonardo's still ongoing lecture. _Exactly like before._

"Don't worry about it Mikey." Sara muttered while running a hand through the front of her hair, rubbing at her forehead for a moment before exhaling again as she met the blue-eyed gaze of her friend. A small smile curled over her mouth, the bitterness clinging only in the slightest to the left corner. "I'm used to personalities like Raphael's. It's the initial introduction to it that aggravates me more than anything." She shrugged in an almost nonchalant sort of way. "I'm sure I'll get used to it fairly quickly."

Michelangelo chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of his head. "Here's hoping."

A soft thump muttered out from near the roof edge followed quickly after by the hurried and almost panicked voice of Donatello, "What are you guys doing just standing around here for?" The usually calm and mild speaking genius looked to be a bit out of breath with sweat beading his brow and bo staff clutched tightly in hand as he padded over to where his brothers and friend stood staring at him with lifted looks. Shaking his head at whatever questions were possibly forming in the thoughts of the others, Donatello held a hand up to keep them silent as his brown-eyed gaze fell immediately upon Sara. "Your dopplegangers... they're fighting The Foot."

"What?!" Sara's jaw nearly unhinged as it dropped as shock registered through her system. "Donny are you okay?! How many were there?!" The teen crossed what small three foot gap was between her and the other turtle who had just joined the group. She looked to be on the verge of grabbing the taller teenage turtle by the shoulders, but the fact that he out stood her by a foot made it a bit impossible to do so, and thusly she merely stood before him with what looked like both an infuriated and worried look that formed a deep crease across her brow and knit her eyebrows towards the middle.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Donatello returned while offering her a very small but assuring smile. "They just showed up out of nowhere while I was scuffling with your dopplegangers. If I had to guess, I'd say there were at least thirty of them or more."

"Dude, that's overkill!" Michelangelo quipped while shooting Leonardo and Raphael a worried look.

A grim frown pulled across Leonardo's mouth, his hands twitching just a bit as though he were hesitating in drawing his swords from their sheaths strapped to the back of his shell. "It's sounds like an ambush party. Were any of them wearing masks like the one Sara showed us last week?" Leonardo's gaze drifted from his brother to their friend and back. Donatello shook his head in response, which prompted Leonardo to another train of thought, and once again his amber eyes turned to Sara. "_The Faceless Ones; _how long would they wait before coming after you again?"

Sara's shoulders shrugged in response. "I'm not sure, but what I've heard about them is that if they're first attempt to take their target fails in some manner or other, they'll wait until they believe a new opportunity arises to attack once more and take their target. It could be days, weeks, even a year if they didn't feel the time and place haven't presented themselves. In a sense they're opportunists, but at the same time their incredible tacticians." There was a look on Sara's face that seemed a bit too mature, almost hard as she listed what she knew about _The Faceless Ones._

"Then there's a good possibility that their using The Foot to test whether or not it's safe to make another go for her." Raphael grunted, arms crossing over his chest as he was taking the thought of an approaching fight rather seriously while his gaze glinted with something akin to that of excitement. "Pretty smart if you ask me."

Everyone nodded in agreement to this statement. Sara pursed her lips for a moment as she folded her arms, the thought of _The Faceless Ones_ using The Foot as testers seemed a bit strange, but then again... _What the hell?! _Something seemed to suddenly reverberate through her at that moment; a deep rumbling pulse that she had felt a few times before, but never really understood. The pulse slowly faded, almost nonexistent before it thrummed through her once more and startled the teen to the point she snapped to attention and managed to even cause the four brothers to jump slightly.

"Yo, you okay there Sara?" Michelangelo cast a sideways glance as her sudden movements.

Sara shook her head slowly, unsure of what she had just felt and why. "I guess... but I think... I think my dopplegangers just fell." Her gaze slowly shifted up to Michelangelo, and in the same moment it narrowed as she grabbed a hold of his left shoulder with her left hand and suddenly shoved him aside with as much force as she could muster.

This of course startled not only the blue-eyed brother, but had his brothers choking at such a sudden violent action on Sara's part. As Michelangelo fell away to the side, hitting the ground and sliding another two feet or so, several _bo-shuriken_ struck the ground about Sara as anchors to thin wire that glinted under the sickly glow of the half moon overhead. Timed with the last_bo-shurkien_ that bit into the ground, a burst of flame ripped down the wires towards the teen who only managed to get her arms up in a crossed defense position before being engulfed in a torrent of hot flame.

All four pairs of eyes went wide as they watched the ball of fire burn with a terrible roar; the wavering silhouette in the midst of the fireball disappearing in mere seconds.

"SARA!" Michelangelo stared in terror as the fireball died, leaving behind a charred black spot where it had been burning. The thought that his new friend had just been killed in a self-sacrifice to an attack she saw coming, buckled the youngest turtle's train of thought and almost immediately stung his eyes with the onset of utter grief.

The weapons of Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael slipped from their backs and waist as they fell into a defensive stance as soon as the fireball exploded, their own feelings of panic and even fear that they had just watched a friend fall before their very eyes taking over and wrenching across their faces. The simultaneous thought of "The Foot" being responsible erupted to the forethought of their minds as all eyes were glued to the dying fireball.

Like the fragile flame of a candle, the fireball whipped out of existence and in its wake a pitch black lopsided circle and a clattering log charred just as black as the roof concrete were left behind. The log itself in its mere presence seemed to suck the breath straight out of the turtles as it finally came a still rest after rolling back and forth a few times once it hit the ground.

"A replacement?" Donatello would have scratched the back of his head had they still been playing their training game, but with the new set of circumstances, his grip only tightened upon the wooden bo staff in hand with the reaffirmation to the fact that he and his brothers had not lost their friend.

Pushing himself back to his feet, Michelangelo stared slack jawed at the log that in its now brittle state dropped a bit of the natural charcoal pieces that it had become. _She used a replacement...? She used a replacement!! _Relief washed in like a tsunami wave, engulfing Michelangelo as he twisted and craned his neck in order to catch sight of his friend, wherever she had hidden herself.

The heavy thump of multiple pairs of feet meeting the rooftop snapped the brothers back to attention and reminding them that they still had a fight on their hands to attend to. The black clad members of The Foot clan numbered at around twenty or so; Sara's dopplegangers having been a far greater point of damage than the enemy ninja had not accounted for. A few of the ninja appeared to have their garments ripped here and there, one looking even as though he had been possibly hit with something other than fists and feet.

"Hmph, looks like the little _kaibutsu _managed to pull off a _Kawarimi Jutsu_." A muffled male voice bearing an accent of some sort of Asian decent, rippled out from somewhere amidst the gathered Foot Ninja, causing those standing in the way to move aside like a parted wave. The soft tap of scraping soles gave the approach of whomever had spoken a far greater sense of eerie presence before he actually stepped into view and paused at the front of the group. Dressed head to toe in shades of deep purple and scarlet, the single black cloak tossed back over the left shoulder while the right engulfed that single side of the body, a tight near second-skin like mask covered the lower half of the face from the bridge of the nose down.

"Kaibutsu?" Michelangelo murmured while whipping out his twin nunchaku from their places on either side of his waist. The word was obviously foreign, Japanese by the way the man in the odd garments that held no affiliation to that of The Foot.

Donatello's brow furrowed as a frown pulled down his mouth as far as it could go at that moment. "That word didn't sound like it was friendly." He muttered while turning his bo-staff towards the unknown speaker.

Leonardo's gaze narrowed with a hard look upon the half-masked ninja. "You're not apart of The Foot, are you." There was no sense of question in Leonardo's voice as he more or less stated what he knew to be incredibly obvious. The thought of _The Faceless Ones _came to mind like a thunderbolt, which in turn caused the eldest brother to tighten his own grip on the hilts of his twin ninjatō. His amber gaze darted over a rather nasty looking bruise hovering over the man's left eye, and for a brief moment, a smirk twitched at the left corner of his mouth. "Nice shiner; guess you're looking to pay Sara back for that." The tone of his voice almost sounded close to a growl as he spoke.

The half-masked ninja didn't even so much as flinch in response to the statement handed over to him like a slap in the face. The only movement that came from the ninja was a mere narrowing of dark eyes. "_Haruno Tsunade_? That kaibutsu missed her real target. I admit, being punched like that by her was not something I look forward to again any time soon. But to answer your question, _Aoi-san,_yes I look forward to paying her back in full." A rather flat tone encompassed his words as though he were almost bored with the conversation. "I'll especially enjoy watching her die as the Kyuubi is ripped from its sealed state within her. From what I understand, it's supposed to be an agonizing death with the removal of the _bijuu _inside of the unfortunate_ jinchuriki_."

A growl erupted from Raphael's throat in response to the nonchalance of the unnamed ninja who spoke so bluntly. The grip on his sais almost burned as the leather wrapping rubbed against the bare palm of his hand. The crude description of Sara being killed... Raphael was pissed. However, the second eldest of the four brothers found a small sense of satisfaction a few seconds later as the heavy sinking thud of a clenched fist striking the side of a half hidden face echoed deafly across the murmured air of the city.

Whatever plan Sara had suddenly devised in the moment she had narrowly escaped being burned to death, was either being played out in its forethought entirety, or was had been executed in a forced rush that was brought about by a sudden build up of rage in response to the ill-will of the unnamed ninja. All sense of rage and blind fury had been put into the right-handed blow that sent the unmasked (but identity concealed) ninja shooting off to his own right with the basic momentum of a professional baseball pitch. The body collided with the sheet metal of a rather large cooling/heating unit, spearing straight through with the groaning pop and hissing screech of twisted metal and broken electrical lines.

For a moment, Sara stood in a half bent position with hands still tightly clenched into fists; her breathing a bit jagged as anger coursed through her body as though it were apart of her blood. A shadow played across the upper portion of her face beneath the curtain of her bangs, hiding what twisted scowl seethed across her expression. The gritted snarl her mouth had contorted was clearly visible to all sides; The Foot taking a timid pause as though they considered attacking the Haruno ninja at all now.

Before a conclusion could be reached in the span of ten seconds, what had been grey eyes now swallowed by a brilliant dark blue turned upon them with an inner malice that seemed completely inhuman as it dared for them to even move in for an attack. What given orders had been issued down to the ninja overrode whatever fear they seemed to have automatically accumulated, as they unsheathed the single ninjatō strapped to their backs with the clean singing scrap of metal against hard leather.

The grinding clench of tooth enamel against tooth enamel cracked audibly in response to the weapons being drawn; Sara's gaze remained within its changed color state while the pupil seemed to contort to a much more oval shape than a round circle. The first Foot Ninja that moved with ninjatō coming down in a swinging motion cleaved nothing but air as Sara's form moved far faster than the Foot could catch up to. The auburn haired teen appeared within the midst of her friends, standing between the four brothers in a far straighter position than prior to when she reappeared after dodging the wire-line fireball.

"You okay Mikey?" Contorted eyes shifted over to the orange mask wearing turtle who had been shoved out of the way of the ambush. Sara's tone seemed to hold a reverberation to it in a soft underlying almost nonexistent presence, however, her words were still sincere and that alone could be heard more than anything else at the moment.

Michelangelo nodded in affirmation while cracking a rather large grin. "I'm as cool as the other side of the pillow! Although I have to admit, that sort of scared me for a second or two." He stated while twirling his nunchaku expertly into a readied offensive hold as he turned his attention entirely upon the Foot.

"Smooth moves there princess." Raphael grunted while falling in line with his brothers alongside her. "You knocked that guy clear off his feet. So much for being a feared rouge." He smirked while flashing a gleaming smirk at the handful of opponents to take on for a bit of muscle flexing.

"Sorry to disappoint you Raphael, but that wasn't the real ninja I took out." As she spoke, Sara lifted up her right hand that was now unflexed from its fisted curl. A dark liquid covered her knuckles and the top of her hand in a spatter-like pattern. "It was a doppleganger like the ones I use; except this one was made from ink." Her lips curled downward in a frown as her hand dropped to her side and curled tightly once more. "He's from an artisan ninja clan."

"And what does that mean?" Leonardo chanced a momentary glance from the corner of his eye as the Foot started forward in an advance.

A rather dark look flickered across Sara's face. "I'll tell you later." Sara pulled from her back pocket a small scroll of some sort that was about two inches long and tied with a red string. Clasping the scroll in her left hand, Sara quickly formed a serious of seals before slamming her hand down on the ground before her. A small pop and a puff of smoke later, and a dark cream colored pouch appeared where the scroll had been between her hand and the ground. The pouch was fastened to the back of her hip via the black belt she wore about her waist, and before her hands came back up in front of her, Sara pulled a dark steel colored kunai out from within the pouch confines. "Let's just take care of these guys first."

"Agreed!" All four brothers chorused together before rushing forward at their sworn enemies.

* * *

**Kawarimi no Jutsu - Change of Body Stance Technique**: Kawarimi no Jutsu is a basic Ninjutsu technique. When in danger the ninja will quickly substitute themself with another nearby object. This can be a block of wood or even another person. This allows the ninja to quickly flee and hide while the original object takes the brunt of their opponents attack.

**Kaibutsu:** Translated it literally means "monster". Sara takes high offense to being called this.

**Aoi:** Translated it literally means "blue". The unnamed ninja with The Foot called Leonardo "Aoi-san" as he does not his proper name as of yet. It is of course inspired by the blue mask Leo wears.

**Ninjatō** (忍者刀) Also known as _Ninjaken_ (忍者剣,_Ninjaken_) or _shinobi gatana_ (忍刀,_shinobi gatana_), is the most common name for the reputed sword a ninja carried.


End file.
